WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (APP): Members of Kashmiri-American community in Washington, D.C., along with their supporters from other US states and also Canada, staged a protest rally in front of the Indian embassy, demanding freedom for all Kashmiri political prisoners, including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Masarat Aalam and Aasia Andrabi, who have been “unjustly imprisoned for years”.
Sardar Zarif Khan, Advisor to the President of Azad Kashmir and main organizer of the rally, called on India to release the incarcerated leaders in the name of humanity.
The protestors waved banners, placards and shouted slogans, “Supreme Court Decision is a Delusion: Kashmir Needs a Resolution;” “India – Release all political prisoners unconditionally;” “Release the Legend & Prominent Kashmiri Political Prisoner: Yasin Malik;” “ Release Shabir Ahmed Shah: Amnesty Calls Him Prisoner of Conscience;” “Release Masarat Aalam: Victim of Arbitrary Detention;” Release Aasia Andrabi: Wrongfully Imprisoned.” “Indian Democracy Dead in Kashmir;”. and “No justice: No Peace.”
An appeal from Razia Sultan, daughter of the prominent Kashmiri freedom fighter, Mohammad Yasin Malik, called for urgent international action to save the life of her father, who, she said, had sacrificed everything throughout his life for the cause of Kashmir
“I love my father deeply. I have not seen him for seven years, nor have I spoken to him for the past six years,” she said. “If Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi is so powerful, why is he afraid of my father simply for speaking the truth?”
Dr. Ghulam N. Mir, President, World Kashmir Awareness Forum and Executive Producer of ‘Saffron Kingdom’, a Kashmir film, said that successive Indian regimes continue to hold Kashmiri prisoners under draconian laws for decades without due process. Kashmir under Indian occupation, he said, is a lawless state where eminent political leaders, human rights defenders and journalists are imprisoned in a vast network of dungeons for decades without an end.
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman of the World Forum for Peace & Justice, said that a trial court has sentenced Yasin Malik to life imprisonment on May 24, 2022. Now, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is seeking enhancement of the sentence to death penalty. “We all know that the case of Yasin Malik is not a legal but a political one,” he said.
“Yasin Sahib — imprisoned, enduring hardships, has sacrificed everything for the cause of Kashmir,” Dr. Fai said. “His struggle demands our remembrance, our gratitude, our unwavering resolve and at least our togetherness at a rally for his release be it Washington, New York, Dallas, Houston, Paris, London, Oslo, Brussels, Barcelona and Copenhagen.”
Dr. Imtiaz Khan, Kashmiri American scholar, said that Yasin Malik, a prominent leader for the movement of Kashmiri independence and the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, is not run of the mill politician, but a revolutionary leader who has flame of freedom burning in his heart.
By trying to eliminate peace-loving leaders like Yasin Malik, the Indian regime is closing any avenues of peace in the region and pushing the youth of Kashmir towards actions that can be detrimental to the peaceful resolution of Kashmir conflict.
Mowahid Hussain Shah, attorney-at-law, author, and Member of the District of Columbia and U.S. Supreme Court Bars, speaking at the site of the Mahatma Gandhi statue near the embassy, lauded the legacy of India’s founding leader in struggling against racial injustice and oppression in South Africa for 21 years.
But Mowahid said now India is ruled by Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi who was banned from entering America for 10 years because the U.S. State Department had actual evidence of his direct complicity in the Gujarat anti-Muslim pogroms and massacres when Modi was the chief minister of the state.
Yasin Malik, he stated, stands tall and unafraid and, most importantly, the jailed Kashmiri leader remains undefeated, in the cause of Kashmir. Mowahid recalled the example of his father, Col. Amjad Hussain Sayed, who, on his deathbed, gave the parting advice to always speak Kalma-e-Haq. Mowahid said that all well-wishers of humanity and proponents of fairness in Kashmir, and advocating for the release of Yasin Malik, should not be bashful in speaking out loud and clear.
Sardar Shoaib Irshad, General Secretary of the Kashmir American Welfare Association (KAWA) and co-organizer of the rally, told the gathering that the Delhi High Court on August 11, 2025, sought the response of Yasin Malik on a plea filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking death penalty for him. The new hearing will be held on November 10, 2025, when the jail authorities will produce Yasin Malik virtually before the court. Then the court will decide whether to keep life imprisonment or enhance it to death penalty. “we are here to stand for Yasin Malik.”
Sardar Mehmood Iqbal, Advisor to the President of Azad Kashmir; Hafiz Habibullah, a religious scholar; Zia ul Hassan, a prominent community leader; Hamid Malik, a leader of Washington Metropolitan community; and activists Sardar Aftab Roshan Khan and Mian Waseem, and Sadaqat Hayat, a Kashmiri- Canadian human rights activist were among those who addressed the protestors.