Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, the wife of illegally detained Hurriyet leader, Maulana Sarjan Barkati, has appealed to the human rights bodies to play role in the shifting of her husband to Srinagar jail from Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu.
Maulana Barkati’s wife talking to media men in Srinagar said that her financial condition was very weak and she was not in a position to visit her husband at Kot Bhalwal jail. Maulana Barkati popularly known as “freedom chacha and Pied Piper of Kashmir†for his peculiar way of sloganeering was arrested on October 1 from Wanpoh area of south Kashmir when he was on his way to address a public rally in Arwani. He was immediately booked by the authorities under black law, Public Safety Act (PSA). Maulana Barkati’s wife told media that the recent rumors about her husband’s death under custody forced her to hire a vehicle and visit Jammu in the dead of Saturday night to see him. “He was alive, but has been beaten ruthlessly by the jail authorities. He is suffering from ailments in the jail,†she said. “I along with my two sons want to visit him (Barkati) but our financial conditions don’t allow us,†she said. She appealed to human rights bodies to put pressure on the authorities that her husband be shifted to Srinagar jail so that she could visit him frequently.Maulana Barkati, a religious scholar and a senior leader of Ummat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir headed by Qazi Yasir, rose to the prominence for his slogans for freedom during the ongoing mass uprising. He was instrumental in organizing public rallies across South Kashmir in the uprising. He popularised “new forms of pro-freedom and anti-India sloganeering†that went viral across occupied Kashmir. Meanwhile, Ummat-e-Islami Chairman Qazi Yasir in a statement cautioned the authorities that ailing health.
of prisoners in jails would have serious repercussions and demanded that they should be shifted to Valley, in wake of their families being unable to travel long distance due to bad financial conditions.
