A letter from a Kashmiri detainee addressed to his family in Indian-administered Kashmir says he remains “confined to four choked walls”.
The detainee, held under provisions of the 1978 Public Safety Act (PSA), with another 22 Kashmiri men in an Indian jail, asks his family and friends to pray for him.
A copy of the letter available with Anadolu Agency says: “We are 23 Kashmiri brothers here and all of us are confined to solitary prison cells. Neither can we talk to each other nor can we shake hands but only remain confined to the four choked walls.
“Please pray for us as we are in helpless condition,” the detainee, who did not wish to be named, writes to his family.
The mass detention of thousands of Kashmiris began last August when the Indian government stripped the region of its special provisions.
Read more: How sick Kashmiris are surviving Indian lockdown?
From thereon, hundreds of people, particularly young men, have been lodged in faraway jails under the PSA Act, described by Amnesty International in 2016 as a draconian law. Three former chief ministers of the region have also been booked under the law, that allows the government to detain a person for up to two years without a trial.
The restive Muslim-majority state has been under lockdown for the last seven months.
It’s only because of the Internet that we know Indian cops and their deputized Hindutva street thugs are attacking Muslims and their homes, businesses and mosques.
The Internet has been cut in Kashmir by India for more than 200 days. So one can only imagine the horrors there. https://t.co/CftBMmaRwV
— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) February 26, 2020
While some restrictions have eased, high speed internet still continues to remain blocked in the region with a complete ban on social media.
‘Whole world shattered’
Ateeqa Begum, a widow from the region’s main city, Srinagar, has been on her toes since Aug. 6 when her 22- year-old son was arrested on his way to buy medicine.
“It has been 205 days when my son was arrested without any justification. I don’t know in what condition is he right now, it kills me when I think about it,” Begum told Anadolu Agency.
Read more: Pakistan’s diplomatic coup in India: Trump wants to mediate Kashmir
Her son, Faisal Aslam Mir is one of thousands in the region who was detained and moved to a jail in harsh conditions.
Mir’s imprisonment in Agra jail, 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) from Srinagar has left his mother at her wit’s ends.
“I want to cry aloud. I have not seen my son for the last seven months. My whole world is shattered now,” she said.
The rule of barbarism being practiced in Indian held #Kashmir. And the world sleeps over it still. And we think we better than animals.
— Qedi 804 (@RizTajK) February 26, 2020
The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a human rights group, said in its annual report that at least 412 people have been booked under PSA from Aug. 5 to Dec. 31.
Most continue to remain in jails as the high court in the region has overturned less than two dozen of detention orders since August 5.
Anadolu with inputs from GVS News Desk