Uighur siblings in India jail since 2013 face deportation threat
Jammu, Indian-administered Kashmir – In August 2013, a police officer in Nubra, one of the last inhabited valleys in the northeastern Himalayan region of Ladakh, received an unusual message.
In the letter, Pramanand Jha, an officer of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), a paramilitary force mainly deployed on India’s eastern borders, asked the police to register cases against three “Chinese invaders” who were in ITBP jail for almost two months.
The letter stated that the Chinese nationals had been captured by the Indian Army on the evening of June 12, 2013 near the Sultanchusku area along the India-China border. The three were handed over to the ITBP the next day.
Jha said in his letter that their questioning revealed that the trio – Adil, Abdul Khaliq and Salamu – were siblings between the ages of 20 and 23 and belonged to China’s eastern Xinjiang region.
During their two-month interrogation, the ITBP found nothing against the three men except that they had illegally crossed into Indian territory.
When the police took them to court in September 2013, they said they did not understand the local languages.
After serving 10 months in jail in Leh, Ladakh’s main city, where the siblings learned some Urdu and Ladakhi languages, they confessed to the court that they had crossed to India “without travel documents and that they were in possession of knives and cards. when the Indian Army arrested them.
The court found them guilty of three offenses on 22 July 2014 and sentenced them to 18 months in prison.
But who are they and why did they cross over to India?
The siblings belong to the Uyghur community and say they are residents of Kargilik in Xinjiang, who they fled after being persecuted by Chinese authorities. China is accused of serious human rights violations against the Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority.
At least one million Uyghurs are housed in so-called “counter-extremism centers” in Xinjiang, which borders Indian-administered Kashmir, according to the United Nations.
The siblings told their lawyer Muhammad Shafi Lassu that they decided to flee China after some of their relatives and friends were locked up in a detention center.
“They also told me that ITBP officials misreported their ages and that they were 16, 18 and 20 years old respectively,” said Lassu, a lawyer in Ladakh who has been fighting their cases pro bono since meeting them during a prison visit. in 2014.
“When I met them in prison, I could tell they were naive young boys,” Lassu told Al Jazeera. “As they interacted with them, they tried to convey to me that they were afraid they would also be locked up in a detention center and so they tried to flee.”
The three brothers told Lassu that they were not aware of the international border rules and that they could end up in jail because of it.
“They begged me in their broken words to release them,” Lassu said. “Even the prison warden at the time told me that they act like children, play with each other, sometimes argue and then behave normally again.”
But what seemed like a few months in prison turned into a decade-long ordeal for the Uyghur siblings after Indian authorities charged them in March 2015 under the strict Public Safety Act (PSA).
The latest PSA order, issued on December 24, 2022, states that the detainees should be deported to their country of birth.
The PSA is a controversial law that allows a suspect to be held without trial for six months. Each time their detention period expired, the authorities issued new detention orders under the same law.
Top police and administrative officials in Kashmir did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the long detention of the Uyghur siblings and their plans to deport them.
“It’s been almost 10 years now and they’re being moved from one prison to another,” Lassu said. “These are persecuted people who have found themselves in this situation due to extraordinary circumstances. They cannot be locked up like this forever, this is not law, this is not justice.”
Lassu has been the only contact person for the siblings outside of prison all these years. He visits them a few times a year and gives them clothes or presents that people have given them.
In prison, the trio seems to have gotten a better grip on reality. They are now fluent in Urdu, Hindi and have learned some English, Lassu said, and spend their time reading books or writing.
They have been detained in Kot Bhalwal Prison in Jammu city since March last year. Lassu has requested the prison authorities to move them out of Jammu due to the scorching heat in the city falling south of the Kashmir valley.
“Their bodies are used to living in colder places,” Lassu told Al Jazeera. “Their situation in the summer gets so bad that they fear they will die because of hot weather.”
The Kashmir region fell on the famous Silk Road and shared a close bond with Central Asia through trade and cultural exchanges. Traders from today’s Xinjiang region would visit the Himalayan region and cross dangerous mountain passes.
Currently, there are about 30 Uyghur families in the region, most of them living in Ladakh and the Kashmir valley.
Lassu has appealed to the Indian government to allow the siblings to live in India, which is home to tens of thousands of refugees, including nearly 100,000 Tibetans, Afghans and Rohingyas from Myanmar.
“I have contacted the government at various levels and begged them to show mercy to these people,” Lassu said. “I even wrote several letters to the prime minister. But there has been no answer.”
Citing China’s alleged atrocities against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the siblings have also petitioned India’s Federal Ministry of Home Affairs not to deport them and grant them temporary asylum until they find permanent refuge in a found another country. The ministry has not yet responded to their call.
Lassu said the siblings should not be sent back to China for fear they could be killed there. “Sending them back to China means giving them a death sentence. They will be shot there by the authorities,” he said.
The lawyer said Canada’s recent announcement to take in 10,000 Uighurs has given the siblings hope of permanent asylum. Since India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention adopted by the UN, New Delhi also does not recognize the role of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in its territory and treats refugees unilaterally.
Al Jazeera contacted UNHCR officials in New Delhi, who said their jobs will not start until after the Uyghur siblings are released from prison.
“Indian authorities should be aware that the UN has determined that the Chinese government’s abuses against the Uyghurs may constitute crimes against humanity,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.
“India should protect the Uyghurs instead of treating them like criminals. Any forced return puts them at great risk,” she said.
Back in Leh, Lassu said he feared for the siblings’ future.
“They have terrible mental health issues,” he told Al Jazeera. “What is happening to them is not only illegal, but also completely inhumane. How can these young men receive 10 years in prison just for fleeing persecution?”