SRINAGAR (ONS) – Describing the recent life sentence to two of its cadres as judicial violence the JKLF on Wednesday said that this was Indias way of replying to Kashmirs transition to non-violence.
Even as the Front leadership here has called for a strike on December 10 against the life imprisonment awarded to Sheikh Nazir Ahmad of Batmalu and Shaukat Ahmad Khan of Nishat, its zonal president in Rawalpindi today said that protests against the sentence would be held across Jammu and Kashmir, Britain, Europe and the Middle East.
Why have verdicts of this kind suddenly started coming now after the cases were kept hanging in the lower courts for 23 long years? Dr. Tauqueer Geelani said at a press conference in the Pakistani city, referring to a case involving the killing of a BSF man.
What does this new Indian trend of the past two years of sentencing Kashmiri detainees to death or life in prison signify? the JKLF zonal president said.
Where in the world, and in which court, are punishments awarded after cases are kept pending for 23 years, he said, adding that one of the accused, Sheikh Nazir Ahmad, had already spend nearly 15 years in jail.
When an armed movement began in Jammu and Kashmir in 1988, the international community, diplomats and civil society leaders, even from India, would often visit Kashmir and urge the Kashmiri people and leadership to wage a peaceful struggle in order to win world support, he said.
The Kashmiri people heeded this call, and began a revolutionary change in 2008 by a positive shift from violence to non-violence, he said
But far from any headway on resolving the Kashmir issue, Kashmiri detainees and leaders have begun to be handed down death penalties and life sentences, he said.
What signal does India want to send to Kashmiris by using the courts and issuing sentences after 23 long years under the pretext of cases, he said.
By answering the peaceful approach of Kashmiris by judicial violence, does the Indian government want to send Kashmiris the message that anyone raising the banner of truth here will be penalized?
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