Jamaat-e- Islami J&K Saturday condemned the continuing house arrest of Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Shabir Ahmad Shah and others and described the action as a blatant violation of human rights and freedom of movement and speech. A statement of Jamaat issued here said without these basic human rights, the life of an individual becomes meaningless. The statement said that in the garb of maintaining law and order the state cannot use its machinery to curb the fundamental rights of a person at its whim. “The persons whose fundamental rights are time and again curtailed represent a large number of people in J&K and curtailing their movement and speech means curtailment of these basic human rights of all those people whom they represent which goes against the basic norms of democracy,” the Jamaat statement said. It said that the government choking the voice of people cannot be called a democratic government but a worst autocracy. “Jamaat-e-Islam i stresses upon those at the helm of affairs in J&K to behave in true democratic way and allow Hurriyat leaders to move and avail their right to freedom of speech,” the statement said. Jamaat also demands the release of all political prisoners including Qasim Faktoo, Ghulam Qadir Bhat, Muhammad Ayub Dar on Eid-ul-Fitr so that they could also celebrate the Eid with their families and relatives.