Amnesty calls on Indian govt to repeal draconian Kashmir law
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In a new report, the human rights agency slams the Indian government for detaining thousands of people on vague charges under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, and has called for its repeal
Rights group Amnesty International has turned up the heat on the Indian government by criticising the tough Public Safety Act (PSA) enforced in Kashmir in a report released in Srinagar on March 21, 2011.
Amnesty urged India to scrap the Act which allows detention for up to two years without charge. It says between 8,000 and 20,000 people in Kashmir have been detained under the PSA since the violent separatist insurgency began in 1989.
“The Jammu and Kashmir authorities are using PSA detentions as a revolving door to keep people they can’t or won’t convict through proper legal channels locked up and out of the way,” said Bikramjeet Batra, Amnesty’s campaigner for the Asia Pacific programme in India.
“Hundreds of people are being held each year on spurious grounds, with many exposed to higher risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment,” he added.
According to the report, detainees include political leaders and activists, suspected members or supporters of armed opposition groups, lawyers, journalists and protesters, including children.
Often, they are picked up for “unofficial” interrogation during which time they have no access to a lawyer or to their families. Ironically, Kashmir Bar President Mian Abdul Qayoom and General Secretary G N Shaheen have been detained under the PSA for the past eight months.
Even minors are being held under the law, the report says. Offenders under 16 years of age can be liable under the law though in the rest of India adult offenders must be above 18 years of age.
The report quotes many detainees including women who have been subjected to torture.
In the case of Khalida Akhtar, the report says: “She stated that during her eight-day stay in SOG (Special Operation Group) camp, Handwara, she was brutally interrogated due to which one of her teeth was broken. She was given electric currents. Her head used to be drowned in buckets of water for extricating confessions from her.”
The Amnesty report says despite a fall in militancy and the resurgence of street protests, the authorities “continue to rely on the PSA rather than attempting to charge and try those suspected of committing criminal acts”. It says the PSA undermines the rule of law and “reinforces the perception that police and security forces are above the law”.
A person can be booked under the PSA on the perception of being a threat to security. “But the word security has not been defined,” said Batra adding that the “authorities consistently thwart high court orders for the release of improperly detained individuals by issuing successive detention orders”.
Amnesty claims the Indian Supreme Court has described administrative detentions, including the PSA, as ‘lawless law’. “Amnesty research shows implementation of the PSA is often arbitrary and abusive, with many of those being held having committed no recognisable criminal acts,” says the report.
The report will be submitted to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions. Amnesty urged the Indian government to extend an invitation and facilitate the visits of UN special procedures, particularly the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Source: India Today, March 22, 2011
BBC News, March 21, 2011
Hindustan Times, March 21, 2011