WASHINGTON, Mar 30: The World Kashmir Awareness forum (WKAF), a Washington-based advocacy group, has condemned the life imprisonment verdict issued by India’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA) against the popular Kashmiri political leader, Mrs. Asiya Andrabi, along with two other female political activists, Sofi Fameeda and Nahida Nasreen on March 24, and called on the UN to push New Delhi for their immediate release.
Asiya Andrabi, 64, founder of Dukhtaran-e-Millet who has spent over 15 years in Indian jails, away from her homeland of Jammu and Kashmir on trumped up charges of “waging war against the state” and “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts” using the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a law that has frequently been criticized by the UN rights experts, Amnesty International, Human Right Watch, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and other international human rights bodies, WKAF said in a press release.
Their sentencing also violates the 4th Geneva Convention as well as International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Mrs. Andrabi, who has barely seen her two grown up sons separated from her since their childhood, will most likely never see them again.
She has spent her entire political life in advocating for the civil and political rights of her people of Jammu and Kashmir, including the UN-guaranteed right to self-determination. The judgement has been pronounced against her opposition to Indian occupation and supporting the UN resolutions, it was pointed out.
“The charges framed against her, and two associates are frivolous , fallacious and fabricated,” the press release said. “The right of self-determination for people of Indian occupied Kashmir is mandated by UN resolutions — the three women were just espousing for the implementation of these resolutions promised by the world body, including both India and Pakistan.
In this regard, WKAF appealed to Dr. Volker Turk; UN High Commissioner on Human Rights; Ganna Yudkivska, Chair of the ‘UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’; Professor Mary Lawlor, ‘UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of the Human Rights Defenders’ and Dr. Alice Jill Edward, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to take up the matter with the government of India and seek the unconditional release of the three human rights defenders.
“Justice cannot be selective, nor can it be sustained through the suppression of voices,” the press release said. “At stake here is not merely the fate of three Kashmiri individuals, but the integrity of fundamental principles that underpin any society governed by the rule of law.
