3 Burmese Refugees in Jammu jail since 2010: JeI

Srinagar: Jama’at-e-Islami Thursday expressed its deep concern over the ‘inhumane treatment’ meted out to refugees from Myanmar by the state administration and police in Jammu.

In a statement a JeI spokesman said, “These people have after facing ‘worst type of atrocities’ in Burma, entered different countries including India to save their lives and dignity but at the instance of some communal and fascist elements, these refugees are facing inhuman treatment in Jammu areas which is not only immoral but a blatant violation of all international laws and covenants relating to the refugees.”

The spokesman said that a glaring example of this ‘inhumane treatment’ is that of three refugees Mohammad Farooq, son of Noor-ul-Islam, Abu Alam, son of Zakir Ahmad and Mohammad Saleem, son of Ali Ahmad who crossed over to India in 2010 and came to Nagrota Jammu to meet their relatives stationed there on Eid al Azha were apprehended by GRP police station Kathua.

After subjecting them to inhumane torture they were sent to Munsiff Court Kathua which after conducting the trial for crossing over the border illegally, sentenced all the three to two years imprisonment which they completed in December 2012. 

“They were then detained under Public Safety Act four times one after another for two years and in December 2014, when they came out of the Kathua jail, they were re-arrested by police and kept in various police stations in a pitiable condition for about eight months, the spokesman said. “They were detained once again under the draconian law of Public Safety Act and since then are languishing in Kathua jail”, he said adding, despite holding the valid international refugee cards, the authorities refused to release them which is a blatant violation of refugee rights.”