Altaf Ahmed Bhat Pays Tribute to Afzal Guru, Maqbool Bhat; Condemns Detention Assassinations of Hurriyat Leaders
Islamabad: Senior leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM), Altaf Ahmed Bhat, paid rich tribute to Shaheed Afzal Guru, stating that his execution was a politically motivated act carried out after a deeply flawed trial that exposed the true nature of India’s judicial system in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
In a statement issued today, Altaf Ahmed Bhat said that Afzal Guru was made a scapegoat to satisfy a manufactured narrative, while his legal rights were systematically denied. He termed Guru’s hanging a judicial killing, adding that the secrecy surrounding his execution and burial inside Tihar Jail was a blatant violation of international law, religious rights, and human dignity. He reiterated the long-standing demand for the return of Afzal Guru’s mortal remains to his family for a dignified burial.
Paying homage to Shaheed Maqbool Bhat, the founding symbol of Kashmir’s resistance, Altaf Ahmed Bhat said that his execution remains one of the darkest chapters in the history of political repression in the region. He said Maqbool Bhat was not executed for any crime but for articulating the Kashmiri people’s aspiration for freedom and self-determination. “History has vindicated Maqbool Bhat. Those who hanged him stand exposed before the world,” he said.
Altaf Ahmed Bhat said that the legacy of these martyrs continues to guide the Kashmiri struggle and serves as a reminder that the demand for freedom cannot be silenced through gallows or prisons.
He then expressed grave concern over what he described as detention assassinations of Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders, stating that India is deliberately using prolonged incarceration and denial of medical care as a slow and calculated method to eliminate political leadership. Referring to the custodial deaths of Syed Ali Shah Geelani , Ashraf Sehrai, Altaf Fantoosh and many others, he said their deaths were the direct result of intentional medical neglect.
Highlighting the deteriorating health of several detained leaders, Altaf Ahmed Bhat said that Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Masarat Alam Bhat, Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Naeem Khan, Asiya Andrabi, and Dr. Abdul Hameed Fayyaz are being kept in harsh prison conditions despite advanced age and serious illnesses. He termed their continued detention illegal, inhumane, and a violation of international human rights norms.
“These leaders are not prisoners of law; they are prisoners of conscience. Keeping them behind bars without proper healthcare is nothing but a silent execution,” he said.
He said that India’s refusal to release seriously ill political detainees exposes the hollowness of its claims of democracy and rule of law. “No democratic system survives by imprisoning dissenters until death. This is repression disguised as legality,” he added.
Altaf Ahmed Bhat called upon the United Nations, international human rights organizations, world leaders, and global civil society to urgently intervene and put pressure on India to immediately release all illegally detained Hurriyat leaders. He said silence at this stage would amount to complicity in grave human rights violations.
He also urged the Government of Pakistan to actively use its diplomatic platforms to push for the release of Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders, and to pressure India into releasing all Kashmiri detainees.