Altaf Bukhari demands release of Mehbooba, Others

Srinagar, june 4 (GNS): Jammu Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Thursday welcomed the release of political leaders like Sartaj Madni, Shah Faesal and Peerzada Mansoor, and demanded that all other political detainees including former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti be also released at an earliest.
In a statement issued here, Bukhari extended gratitude to the union home minister for revocation of PSA against Sartaj Madni, Shah Faesal and Peerzada Mansoor and termed it as a desirable move that will help in making the political situation more favourable in coming days.  He demanded that National Conference senior leader Ali Mohammad Sagar, PDP’s Naeem Akhter, NC’s Hilal Lone besides hundreds of political activists currently detained in and outside Jammu and Kashmir jails should be freed especially in view of the Coronavirus pandemic.
 “It has been our consistent demand that all the political activists and leaders including former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti should be released to ease up the sufferings of people. Their release has assumed more significance in light of the prevailing pandemic that has incremented the sufferings of people,” Bukhari observed.
He said that hundreds of political activists who are presently detained in outside Jammu Kashmir jails like Ambedkar Nagar, Lukhnow, Allahabad, Agra, Rai Bareli, Agartala and Tihar need to be shifted back to their native places immediately so as to ensure their subsequent release.
He said that there are families who are not in a position to meet their loved ones detained and lodged outside J&K jails after August 5, 2019. “The COVID lockdown which resulted into restriction on interstate travel has further added to the woes of the families of the political detainees. The government should immediately shift their lodgement to J&K without any further delay,” he advocated. 
Bukhari said the COVID-19 crisis has adversely affected the basic human rights of political detainees who are held without charge or trial but on a mere suspicion. “The families of such detainees are undergoing mental trauma as they are not able to visit their near and dear ones regularly,” he observed.