India trying to make Kashmir jails a Guantanamo: Mehbooba

Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti alleged on Tuesday that the Indian government was trying to convert prisons in Jammu and Kashmir into a Guantanamo bay.

Mehbooba Mufti said tweeted: "Prisoners are entitled to fundamental human rights and using brute force to quell protests is a clear violation.

"Pertinent to mention that inmates protested after alleged desecration of Quran. GoI wants to turn Kashmir into an open air prison and convert actual jails into Guantanamo."

Her comments followed protests here by relatives of prisoners lodged in Srinagar Central Jail against whom the prison authorities lodged FIRs after the inmates resorted to violence inside the jail on April 5.

The protesters were demanding withdrawal of FIRs against their kin lodged in the Srinagar jail and transfer of its Superintendent and demanded that the inmates should not be shifted to prisons outside the Kashmir Valley.

--IANS

sq/mr/pg