ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has called upon the United Nations (UN) to seek immediate release of Kashmiri human rights activist and political leader Asiya Andrabi, incarcerated in the infamous Tihar Jail in India.
According to a statement issued by Foreign Office today (Sunday), Pakistan has approached the UN secretary general in New York and the UN high commissioner for human rights in Geneva to seek Andrabi’s immediate release.
“It has been highlighted that Ms Andrabi’s life is in danger owing to imminent risk of persecutory conviction by a sham court on 18 January 2020,” the statement read.
The FO stated that as a champion of human rights and an ardent advocate of women empowerment, the Kashmiri leader has worked tirelessly for social reforms and realisation of fundamental freedoms for the people of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) for over four decades.
She founded an organisation called the Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM), one of the biggest women rights organisations in IIOJK, working on women’s education, empowerment, well-being and protection – especially against sexual violence and abuse at the hands of Indian occupation forces.
The FO maintained that Andrabi has been under illegal and inhuman incarceration for over 15 years on fabricated charges under draconian laws aimed at further perpetrating India’s illegal occupation of IIOJK through brutalisation of the Kashmiri people.
“The Indian authorities have now put Andrabi on trial on trumped-up charges, deliberately accelerated the trial, and set aside due process, reflecting malicious intent with clear indications of looming judicial murder,” Chaudhri maintained.
“Pakistan has called upon the United Nations to urge India to drop all fabricated charges against Ms Andrabi, her husband, and her associates, and provide them complete legal protections, including the right to a free and fair trial,” the statement concluded.
