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Kashmiri Couple Lodged in Tihar Jail For Months- Wife Tests Positive for Covid 19

By News Desk

June 07, 2020

A Kashmiri woman arrested along with her husband on 08 March by the National Investigating Agency of India has been tested positive for Covid19, her family told The Kashmiriyat.

A Family member speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that the judicial remand of the couple was extended by a Delhi court by three months, and the husband was sent sent back to the Tihar Jail in Delhi where dozens of other Kashmiris are lodged, while as Hina, his wife will be taken to the hospital for treatment.

“They were brought in NIA headquarters in Delhi since the past week and yesterday after showing some symptoms of Coronavirus, samples of Hina were taken, she tested positive, on Sunday morning,” the family member said.

Aged 39, Hina Bashir Beig, was arrested along with her husband Jahanzaib Sami Wani by Delhi police, later the Delhi Police claimed that the duo were “having links with Islamic State”. They also claimed to have recovered ‘Objectionable material’ from them.buy zithromax online buy zithromax no prescription

Sami, is an IT professional working for a UK based company, shifted to Delhi temporarily in September last year after the Government of India snapped down communication in Jammu Kashmir, post the abrogation of special status of Jammu Kashmir.

On 28 May, the NIA got the custody of the duo to question them, Sehrish Sami, the family member told The Kashmiriyat adding, “They have been shifted back to Tihar today, after thorough questioning of many days.”

The Lawyer of the couple, MS Khan told the Patiala House court that Hina had been found “positive” for corona virus.

He said that he urged the court to shift Hina immediately to a hospital and permit her to talk to her lawyer regularly, which was not allowed earlier.

The court has said that she must be referred to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) hospital in Delhi for treatment.

The family member speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that  MS Khan, the lawyer of the couple in Delhi told them that he had spoken to her just once for a few minutes while she was in NIA custody.

The lawyer said informed the family that she had been tested positive for covid 19.

On March 8, the Delhi Police’s special cell announced they had detained a Kashmiri couple, Jahanzaib Sami Wani, and his wife, Hina Bashir Beg, living in a rented flat in Jamia Nagar.

Other than accusing them of having, ‘Terrorist Links’, the Delhi Police also held them responsible for instigating protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The arrest has angered people back in Kashmir, especially in the Srinagar district where the arrest is being seen as a brazen attack to vilify Kashmiris and give out a message to a larger vote bank that ‘Kashmiris were instigating people for Anti CAA Protests.’

Junaid, a law student from Srinagar told The Kashmiriyat , “BJP has demonized Kashmiris for the past few years and that is how they are expanding their vote bank, Arresting this ‘innocent’ couple from Srinagar in Delhi is an attempt to help that larger propaganda.