Blindfolding prisoners unlawful: ICRC

Blindfolding prisoners unlawful: ICRC
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Rising Kashmir Mehboob JeelaniSrinagar, March 10: In violation of prisoner laws, many Kashmiris detained at jails and interrogation centres of intelligence agencies across the State and outside are unaware about the places they are held captive.
Many Kashmiri political prisoners and youth detained in different jails across India have not seen the day light for years, said President of Islamic Students League (ISL), Shakeel Bakshi who has spent many years in detention.Last time Bakshi was arrested in 2005 and released after spending six months in imprisonment.“The troopers blindfolded me from my residence. I opened my eyes in a detention cell, which was completely dark. I lost the count of time and space. It was a terrible period for me,” he said.“Spending all the time in darkness, a prisoner gets fed up of life within few months,” Bakshi said. “Soon the counselors start appearing. But don’t be mistaken they are not for counseling the psychologically distressed. They come to perform psychological operations, to extract information, further torture, harass and humiliate.”Bakshi said that the counselors put in their all out efforts to pressurize the prisoners into submission. “They threaten the detainees saying that no law on earth can save them if they don’t give up and quit the resistance movement.”Recalling his ordeals in detention, Bakshi said, “For months I was tortured mentally. I never knew in which detention centre I was lodged. One day I saw particles of sand. This gave me a clue that the detention centre was somewhere near the desert, perhaps in Rajasthan.”Bakshi said that even the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) and other human rights organisations are denied access to the detention centres of the intelligence agencies in India.“In such jails, detainees yearn to see fellow detainees. Most of the times these detainees remain surrounded by four concrete walls,” he said.Philips Stoll, Communication Coordinator of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Rising Kashmir, “We are trying our best to convince the government to grant us an access to every detention centre in India. At this point of time we can’t claim to have access to all the Indian prisons.”Stoll said that many countries hide their prisons as they are afraid of action under the International Humanitarian Law.He said that India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ICRC in 1995 and keeping that agreement into consideration ICRC wants to have access to all the detention centres as soon as possible. Prof Mehraj-ud-Din, a noted legal expert in Kashmir said, “It is a violation of the prisoner law. A prisoner must know where he is detained. Police have to inform the prisoner’s family members about the prisoner’s location.”