SRINAGAR: After a long time, rival factions of the Hurriyat Conference together converged on Srinagar city to protest against the "pathetic condition" of Kashmiris in various jails of the country and demanded a fair trial for them.

In a sit-in protest organised at Lal Chowk here by Javed Ahmad Mir, head of a faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, the leaders of rival factions — Syed Ali Geelani, who heads the hard-line group, and Naeem Ahmad Khan, a member of the moderate Hurriyat faction, participated and called for intervention by the international community to "pressure the Government of India" to "immediately stop maltreatment of inmates in various Indian jails," particularly Tihar Jail in Delhi. Another separatist leader and chairman, Democratic Forum, Shabir Ahmad Shah, also joined the protest.

Javed Mir displayed a letter from the inmates of the Tihar Jail written to him in which they have highlighted their "plight and narrated how they are being maltreated." "They have urged us to protest against the treatment and also mentioned how many Kashmiris are under trial and have been booked in fabricated cases," said Mr. Mir.

Inmates' plight

President of the Kashmir Bar Association Mian Abdul Qayoom said: "it is very much pathetic to know about the condition of these inmates who have to bow before a number of restrictions in jail which are against humanity."

He alleged that security forces posted in Kashmir were not behaving properly with women and young girls and said, "I am the eyewitness of so many cases [in which] military and paramilitary soldiers pass comments on women on the road side, which is a direct human rights violation." He sought to dispel the notion that the Kashmiri leadership was not fragmented.

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