South Asia Human Rights Journalist Association

Srinagar,  Feb 26, 2020: A letter from a Kashmiri political prisoner addressed to his family in  Kashmir and says that he remains confined to four choked walls. More than 700 Kashmiris including students, youth, young boys, hurriyet and political leader, lawyers including High Court Bar Association President, Mian Abdul Qayoom ,  High court Bar Association General Secretary Muhammad Ashraf Bhat  and Trade leader Muhamamd Yasin Khan held under draconian law Public Safety Act (PSA) which allows detentions without trial for up to 2 years. The detainee, held under provisions of the 1978 Public Safety Act (PSA), with another 22 Kashmiri men in an Indian jail, asks his family and friends to pray for him.
A copy of the letter available with Anadolu Agency says: "We are 23 Kashmiri brothers here and all of us are confined to solitary prison cells. Neither can we talk to each other nor can we shake hands but only remain confined to the four choked walls.  “Please pray for us as we are in helpless condition,” the detainee, who did not wish to be named, writes to his family.The mass detention of thousands of Kashmiris began 4 August, 2019 when the Indian government stripped the region of its special provisions.From thereon, hundreds of people, particularly young men, have been lodged in faraway jails under the black law Act, described by Amnesty International in 2016 as a draconian law. 

Ateeqa Begum, a widow from Srinagar city, has been on her toes since Aug. 6 when her 22- year-old son was arrested by Indian forces on his way to buy medicine.
“It has been 205 days when my son was arrested without any justification. I don’t know in what condition is he right now, it kills me when I think about it,” Begum told media men. 
Her son, Faisal Aslam Mir is one of thousands in the Kashmir who was detained and moved to a jail in harsh conditions.
Mir’s imprisonment in Agra jail in India, 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) from Srinagar has left his mother at her wit’s ends.
“I want to cry aloud. I have not seen my son for the last seven months. My whole world is shattered now,” she said.The restive Muslim-majority state has been under lockdown for the last seven months. CJ Werleman✔@cjwerleman 
 It’s only because of the Internet that we know Indian cops and their deputized Hindutva street thugs are attacking Muslims and their homes, businesses and mosques.
The Internet has been cut in Kashmir by India for more than 200 days. So one can only imagine the horrors there. https://twitter.com/shaziaj3/status/1232393298788192256 …ShaziaJ@ShaziaJ3 
Replying to @MichaelKugelmanWhen I see this type of brutality in India, it makes me sad & reminds me of a journalist @cjwerleman who said ‘if the forces can viciously attack during daylight & infront of the world media then imagine what these forces are doing to Kashmiri when there is no media coverage’?  Rizwan Taj@RizTajK 
While some restrictions have eased, high speed internet still continues to remain blocked in the region with a complete ban on social media.
‘Whole world shattered’
The rule of barbarism being practiced in Indian held #Kashmir. And the world sleeps over it still. And we think we better than animals.
The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a human rights group, said in its annual report that at least 412 people have been booked under PSA from Aug. 5 to Dec. 31.
 The Kashmir statistics Center in its report said that over 100 Kashmiris were arrested from Jan 1, 2020 to Feb 24, 2020 while in this year over three dozen were booked under draconian law PSA including Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Dr Shah Faisal and advocate  Hilal Akber Lone,
 Over 204 days since abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, families struggle as kin languish in faraway jails Mohammad Maqbool Hurrah, father of Irfan Ahmad Hurrah.
 On 3 August, when the Valley was abuzz with rumours and a sense of foreboding, two police officers from 2019 Kakapora Police Station Pulwama arrived at the Hurrah residence to enquire after the whereabouts of his son. "We had no idea why they were asking about him; Irfan would have been in a Darul Uloom with students, so I told them he would probably be there," said the father.
 On 4 August, police arrested Irfan from a hostel in Kakapora, where he was teaching the Quran to local boys.  The police didn't tell the family the reason for his arrest. "They just told us that he will be safe in the police station," said Hurrah Sr. A day after the abrogation of Article 370, the communication blackout in the Valley left Irfan's family with no means to get information about where he had been taken. "We went to meet officers in Pulwama and requested a curfew pass. I just wanted to locate my son," said Irfan's father, who would go to find out 16 days later from central jail authorities that he had been taken to an Uttar Pradesh jail. "I took fruits and clothes for him, but was told that he had been shifted," he added.
 Irfan, who was the lone breadwinner of his family, was teaching Arabic and Quran to students in Shah-i-Hamdan Pampore, a local school for religious education. Irfan had studied till Class 9, but then sought admission at a Darul Uloom in Srinagar, where he studied for three years.
 Lawyers in Kashmir said in various reports that most of the people charged under the black law PSA have been detained on fake cases. Irfan's dossier reads, "He has done his post graduation in Arabic from Kashmir University." This shocked that family who pointed out that he hasn't even attended higher secondary school. 
The family feels that Irfan was arrested because of his religious leanings. "Is it a sin to follow one's own religion?" asked his father, who has undergone surgery on both his eyes recently and is unable to earn a living for his family. Before this, there had never been any charges filed against Irfan. It was only in October, a month-and-a-half since Irfan was picked up, that Hurrah Sr was able to meet his son in the Uttar Pradesh jail in India. It was then that he started taking loans from people in his village due to his own financial strain.
 Ever since their last meeting, the Hurrah family was hopeful that their son was in good health despite being in jail. This was until the most recent meeting on 17 December. 
It took four days for the family to travel by train to Uttar Pradesh and meet their son, but what greeted them was most unexpected. When Hurrah Sr entered a meeting room at the police station, and hugged his son, Irfan told him that he had been tortured. These were the only words he could uttered. "We were not allowed to talk in Kashmiri, so we couldn't discuss the whole matter," said the father. "I don't know much Hindi. I was just staring at my son and tears were rolling down my face," he added, "We just exchanged glances helplessly without talking much."
Irfan showed his father his injured foot saying that he might require surgery, but wasn't sure who would be able to operate on him there. Since then, the family has been quite worried. "We cannot bear to see him like that. He should at least have been shifted to Kashmir," said Hurrah Sr.    
Thousands of Kashmiris including Hurriyet leaders Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Masarat Aalam Butt, Dr Hameed Fayaz, Syeda Aasiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen, Fahmida Sofi,  Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Aiyaz Akbar, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Peer Saifullah, Mehrajudin Kalwal, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Maulana Sarjan Barkati, Qazi Yasir Ahmad, Advocate Zahid Ali, Moulana Mushtaq Veeri, Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar  are facing illegal detentions in different jails of occupied Kashmir and in Indian jails.
Earlier, in December,2019, a Jamait-e-Islami leader 65-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Bhat of Handwar, who was lodged at Allahabad Jail in India died while serving detention under draconian law PSA. Bhat was arrested for being an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami, . His body reached his family in North Kashmir’s Kulangam village in Handwara two days after he died in Jail due to mental torture and other problems in jails, the rerports said.