ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office Pakistan condemned arbitrary arrests and illegal detention of prominent Islamic scholars, including Maulana Abdul Rasheed Dawoodi, Maulana Mushtaq Ahmed Veeri and five members of JI in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“These deplorable actions only days ahead of UN General Assembly session manifest India’s growing intransigence and utter disregard of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” Foreign Office spokesperson said in a press release. Pakistan also called for immediate release of these religious scholars and all other Kashmiri prisoners illegally detained by India. “We also urge international community to take note of dangerously growing trajectory of Islamophobia in India, instigated at behest of BJP-RSS nexus, that is aimed at suppressing Muslims of India, denying them space to freely practice their faith and attacking their places of worship,” it was added.

Spokesperson said that these arrests had marked a new low in Indian occupation forces’ blatant and continued onslaught on human rights of innocent Kashmiris.

Illegal detention of Kashmiri Islamic scholars while true representatives of Kashmiri people were already in Indian custody under fictitious cases and on fallacious grounds, was yet another Indian attempt to rob Kashmiri people of their distinct religious and cultural identity. “Reprehensible arrests of Kashmiri Islamic scholars under draconian Public Safety Act (PSA), which defies all international humanitarian laws and permits preventive detention for as many as two years without need for a trial, is a deplorable preemptive step by Indian authorities planning to illegally occupy religiously significant ‘Waqf Board’ properties,” spokesperson said. Fearing widespread protests and unrest in face of such a malicious move, these scholars had been unjustly arrested and transferred from Kashmir to a prison in Hindu-majority Jammu. These politically motivated arrests were clearly meant to stifle voice of Muslims of IIOJK and further marginalise them.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 19 2022

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