Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned India’s continued persecution of Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik forcing him to announce hunger strike unto death.

“Pakistan strongly condemns India’s recent move of implicating Hurriyat leader Muhammad Yasin Malik in two more fictitious cases, which have been crafted around incidents that took place more than thirty years ago and have been reopened under the draconian Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) in a clear attempt to perpetuate Yasin Malik’s political victimization.

“Mr. Yasin Malik is already serving out a life-sentence awarded to him after a sham trial by an Indian court on May 25, 2022,” a Foreign Office statement issued here said.

Regrettably, it added, Yasin Malik was also being denied the right of personal appearance in the ongoing trial, in complete contravention of legal and democratic norms.

“Once again, India has employed judiciary as a tool to damage the morale of the Kashmiris by making their true leadership a target of flagrant prejudice. Left with no legal recourse and faced with blatant denial of his rights, Mr. Malik has taken the desperate decision of going on a hunger strike unto death from 22 July 2022,” the statement remarked.

Foreign Office statement said that the inhuman incarceration of Yasin Malik, his sham trials under fabricated cases, his fallacious conviction and the malfeasant attempts at defiling the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiris for their right to self-determination as “terrorism” was nothing but further corroboration of India’s known credentials of being a serial violator of human rights and usurper of the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people.

The Kashmiris’ struggle for the right of self-determination is indigenous and cannot be dampened by the draconian strong-arm tactics of the Indian Government, it added.

Pakistan urged the Indian government to refrain from victimizing the true representatives of the Kashmiri people by way of inhuman detentions and implication in baseless cases.

India must release all political prisoners detained on trumped-up charges, stop human rights violations in IIOJK, and lift the brutal military siege, the statement added.

“Pakistan also calls on the international community to take cognizance of India’s inhuman and illegal detention and treatment of Yasin Malik and ensure that the Kashmiris are given the opportunity to exercise their right to self-determination as espoused under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and as per their own wishes,” the statement concluded.