In occupied Kashmir, the veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani expressing serious concern over the continued illegal detention of Kashmiri youth including more than 50 minors has asked the Amnesty International to take serious note of the matter and use its influence in securing their release. According to Kashmir Media Service, Syed Ali Gilani in a statement issued in Srinagar said that his forum would not remain silent over the detention of more than 50 children and the mistreatment meted out to prisoners in the Kot Bhalwal jail, Jammu. He said that over 1000 pro-freedom leaders were languishing in different jails. "Despite being political prisoners, these leaders are being treated as criminals in these jails," he added. Syed Ali Gilani, whose forum also circulated the list of 55 illegally detained minors, paid tributes to the courage of the Kashmiri prisoners. "Some of them are jailed for ten or twenty years," he stated. He said that while India was claiming to be the largest democracy in world, its claims in Kashmir were totally exposed.