New Delhi, May 05, 2022 (PPI-OT):Patron in chief United Democratic Hurriyat Forum (UDHF) Nayeem Ahmed Khan has paid glowing tributes to Shaheed Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai on his martyrdom anniversary. Illegally detained UDHF chief Nayeem Ahmed Khan in a message from Tihar jail, New Delhi, while remembering the supreme sacrifices rendered by Ashraf Sehrai and his family, said, “Sehrai-an epitome of resistance- is one of the proud sons of the soil who lived and died for a noble cause”. Sehrai, he said, was a great freedom fighter and a strong proponent of the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
“His (Sehrai’s) life-long contribution to the ongoing freedom struggle is the brightest chapter of resistance history that will continue to inspire future generations”, Khan said, adding that the iconic resistance leader would be remembered in the annals of Kashmir history as a great patriot who preferred death rather than compromising his ideals.
He urged the Kashmiri people to come out and pay homage to the iconic leader, who after being killed in the custody, was secretly buried on the diktats of police to avoid public backlash. Terming Sehrai’s death in prison as a clear case of custodial killing, Nayeem Khan said the successive Indian governments have been using illegal detentions as a tool to suppress political dissent in Kashmir.
Referring to arbitrary arrests and preventive detentions of political activists, rights defenders and members of civil society, the HDHF chief said the BJP government has detained thousands of Kashmiris under lawless laws such as Public Safety Act (PSA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The excessive use of preventive detention laws by the Indian government, he said, has led to large scale arrests and house detention of the Kashmiri political activists especially after 5th August 2019. He said along with Hurriyat leaders thousands of Kashmiris, mostly youth who have been detained before and after August 2019, continue to suffer in jails outside Kashmir. He appealed to world human rights bodies to take effective notice of the matter and play their due role in early release of all illegally detained Kashmiri prisoners.
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