Where can a man be jailed, accused of killing someone who died 7 years before the accused was even born, try Indian occupied Kashmir. According to a Pot published in the Kashmir Times, Jammu, on 12 March, 1996, Javiad Ahmad Kathwari, a21 year old Kashmiri freedom fighter was arrested by the Indian authorities at his home in Srinagar Kashmir on January 15, 1995. Four months later on May 5, 1995 in his jail cell he was served a detention notice from a District Magistrate under the Public Safety Act of 1978. Under this Indian law, a person can be jailed for 24 months without trial. Javiad Kathwari is accused of killing Sohan Lal Mehra of Srinagar in September 1993; Javiad Kathwari was jailed at Sangroor jail in Punjab, India. Jails in Kashmir are overcrowded, prisoners to be detained for more than a year are sent to jails outside of Kashmir.

It seems, at the urging of the distraught parents of Javiad Kathwari, on October 19, 1995 the eldest son of the deceased Sohan, Lal Mehra, Mr. Vijay Kumar Mehra, in a swom statement to the High Court of Kashmir, said that his father had died in 1965. He had died a natural death in Amritsar. Amritsar is about 400 miles from Srinagar. “At the time of the death of my father, Javiad Ahmad Kathwari son of Ghulam Hassan Kathwan of 293 Jawahir Nagar, Srinagar, was not born because as per his date of birth certificate, his date of birth is 1972,” noted Mr. Mehra in the affidavit he submitted. The Court based on the statement asked the authorities’ | respond. There was no response The State Counsel chose not to appear before the court, despite summons issued by the court. The Sangroor jail authorities got the court decision the same day. Javiad Kathwari was not freed. Instead, he was sent to another jail in “Jammu where he continues to be in detention. There is more, it seems after the court action, the Indian authorities faxed a message to the police directing reinvestigation of charges and “hunting for more crimes possibly committed by the accused,” The faxed document was leaked to the Kashmiri press. As a result, the police personnel at the lower level got the sack. The Indian authorities have failed to drum up any other charges against Javiad Kathwari, yet he remains in jail. His parents continue their struggle to get his freedom.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 2, 1996