Daily Times

Amidst the seemingly perpetual lockdown Mother Nature has dragged us in, I could not stop but to contemplate and be appalled when I tried to compare this feeble lockdown with the lockdown people of Jammu and Kashmir have been ensnared in for all these years by the Indian authorities. Shivers went down my spine when I realized that if for us staying in our homes for a couple of weeks could nearly drive us to insanity even when we have the luxuries of internet, smartphones, social media and an actual government to rely on; inhabitants of Jammu and Kashmir aren’t even given basic rights and necessities to live and yet they have been living like silent prisoners for all these years. This thought questioned our humanity.

Lately it has been really integral to bring the political prisoners – held in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir – under light and address this dire situation. Holding innocent people as political prisoners in the wake of the pandemic, COVID-19 is just a true violation of human rights by the Indian authorities. The United Nations should take immediate actions to assess the overall issue and help the Indians to draw a line between human rights and who to actually call a criminal. Indian authorities have just lately been acting on their whim and it is advised that world leaders should help the political prisoners held in IOJK to be freed from captivity. It is very crucial to bring these prisoners back to their families who have been secluded into their houses, nowhere to take their voice amid the breakout of coronavirus. It is of utmost importance to help the affected families in these tough times and help them unite with their loved ones that have been held captive. Despite lockdown in IOJK, Movement of Indian security forces and their continued cordon and search operations and door to door searches may cause widespread of the virus. This is also a very alarming situation where thousands of Indian soldiers ludicrously marching in homes of innocent Kashmiris only to bring the virus with them. Would any Indian soldier care about whether which Kashmiri gets infected with coronavirus? They would let them die in vain and that’s what the Indian army has been doing for years. Their inhuman activities should be stopped and they should be ordered to stop their movement in these tough times when the virus is spreading at an exponential rate.

The wake of COVID 19 saw many countries releasing their prisoners showing that they are the real flag bearers of human rights. Iran for instance temporarily freed 54,000 prisoners in an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus outbreak as the country has reported a number of deaths and infections from the disease. Iran, which is reportedly facing the deadliest outbreak outside China, has deployed a team of 300,000 of health workers to help the infected and that included prisoners. The pandemic has piled pressure on criminal justice systems globally and has led to a flood of prisoner releases, with the US, Canada and Germany joining Iran in releasing thousands of detainees as the United Nations has urged the countries to release their prisoners to curtail the virus from spreading more but why hasn’t the Indian government paid attention to this. Are the Indians some sort of extraterrestrials on which worldly laws do not apply? Are the Indians above the law? Lately, this situation is getting out of hand and it is about time the united nation should look into it. Even the US department of state has recently released a press release and has given a statement that the political prisoners held by the Indians should be released and also encouraged the complete restoration of internet services in Jammu and Kashmir amid the breakout of coronavirus. It is necessary to provide these people with basic necessities like internet services to help them combat the disease properly.

The real crisis, however, may well lie in Kashmir’s hospitals, which remain understaffed and ill-equipped to fight the outbreak

The Kashmir siege, however, goes well beyond indefinite denial of the internet and encompasses every aspect of life. It is about so many things done to the people simultaneously: in its external manifestation it is, of course, about a blanket security lockdown and a communication blockade, partially eased since, which between them have brought to bear almost the entire might of the Indian state on Kashmir to suppress all forms of dissent. Amid the growing concerns, more than 170 academics from around the world have written a letter to the World Health Organization and UN special rapporteurs about the restoration of high-speed internet in Kashmir. Given the situation, residents of the valley fear the potentially disastrous consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Apprehensions abound that this may be just the “tip of the iceberg” as several hundred people, most of whom had travelled to other countries, were placed under quarantine. The real crisis, however, may well lie in Kashmir’s hospitals, which remain understaffed and ill-equipped to fight the outbreak. Needless to say that the Indians even didn’t provide the Kashmiris with adequate health facilities to combat this horrific disease. If authorities do not act on this situation soon, we all could be seeing a mass breakout of coronavirus infections that even the Indian government and even the World Health Organization be able to control. With not even providing basic facilities , the Indians might still be trying to be ignorant of the fact that this disease wouldn’t spread because they drank some excretory waste of a cow. This is the type of fairyland Indians are living in and this is something that needs to be stopped.

The writer is a journalist and social media influencer based in Islamabad and tweets @ShahabSpeaks