The overcrowded and unhygienic conditions in Indian jails have previously led to regular outbreaks of other infectious diseases, including typhoid, tuberculosis and cholera.
The treatment of disease is also hampered by a shortage of medical staff in jails, according to the India Justice Report 2019. State governments began releasing inmates from the end of March with a panel in Maharashtra – which has the country’s highest caseload – ruling that 50 per cent of its 35,239 prisoners should be let go.
In Kashmir, the authorities have refused to release any inmates and activists argue it is a policy to suppress civil society. Pro-independence militants have fought Indian Army soldiers since 1989 and there has been an uptick in fighting since a nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was lifted on June 1.
Activists say the Indian authorities have detained and arrested hundreds of innocent Kashmiris as part of a claimed crackdown on insurgents, with 230 people held under a controversial law – the Public Safety Act (PSA) – which allows detention for up to two years without trial.
“Most of the people in Jammu and Kashmir jails are political detainees, mostly detained under the preventive detention law PSA or are under trial,” said Khuram Parvez, a Kashmiri human rights activist.
“The approach of the government has been vindictive towards Kashmiri prisoners. These people are being punished without trials and Covid-19 didn’t deter the government from ending its belligerence when it comes to Kashmiris”.
It appears to be a policy enforced across India with jailed opposition activists refused to leave and left vulnerable to Covid-19.
The 80-year-old Maoist poet Varavara Rao has contracted the deadly virus in prison in Maharashtra where he is being held for allegedly inciting caste violence, a charge he denies, with his family saying he is in a terrible condition.
Back in Kashmir, family members of those detained in Anantnag Prison told The Telegraph they fear their loved ones will die inside and they have no way to monitor their wellbeing.
Zahid Ali, 68, was picked up from his home in the Nihama village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district by Indian police on June 30.
His son Mudasir said it was unclear why his father had been arrested but he was an ex-spokesperson of a banned socio-political organisation, the Jamat-e-Islami
“The allegations leveled against him are baseless as he has no connection even remotely with any unlawful or illegal activity,” said Mudasir.
“Jail authorities are not allowing us to meet him. We don’t know his health condition exactly. He is an elderly man and should be released at least on payroll.
“We know jails are overcrowded in Kashmir and have inadequate medical facilities. Prisoners are not provided medicine on time.
“We hope there is no Covid-19 outbreak because most of these political prisoners are aged, suffering from multiple ailments and vulnerable to contract the virus.”