ISLAMABAD – Pakistan strongly condemned yesterday the arbitrary arrests and illegal detention of prominent Islamic scholars, including Maulana Abdul Rasheed Dawoodi, Maulana Mushtaq Ahmed Veeri and five members of Jamaat-e-Islami, in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
These deplorable actions only days ahead of the UN General Assembly session manifest India’s growing intransigence, and utter disregard of human rights and fundamental freedoms, said the foreign ministry in a statement. These arrests have marked a new low in the Indian occupation
forces’ blatant and continued onslaught on the human rights of the innocent Kashmiris. The illegal detention of the Kashmiri Islamic scholars, while the true representatives of the Kashmiri people are already under Indian custody under fictitious cases and on fallacious grounds, is yet another Indian attempt to rob the Kashmiri people of their distinct religious and cultural identity. The reprehensible arrests of the Kashmiri Islamic scholars under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) that defies all international humanitarian laws and permits preventive detention for as many as two years without the need of any trial, is a deplorable pre-emptive step by the Indian authorities planning to illegally occupy the religiously significant ‘Waqf Board’ properties