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Amnesty International Criticizes 'Tough' Kashmir Law
BBC NEWS, SOUTH ASIA
March 21, 2011: Rights group Amnesty International has criticized a tough Indian law which it says has been used to detain up to 20,000 people without trial in Indian-administered Kashmir. Amnesty urged India to scrap the Public Safety Act (PSA), which allows detention for up to two years without charge. The group also criticized the judiciary for its failure to protect human rights of the detainees.
Kashmir has been gripped by a violent separatist insurgency since 1989. The detentions have been made since the beginning of the insurgency, the Amnesty says in a new report released in Srinagar city on Monday. Titled Lawless Law: Detentions under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act documents how the law is used to secure long-term detention of individuals against whom there is insufficient evidence for a trial.
"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 Asia Pacific program 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.
The report says the detainees include political leaders and activists, suspected members or supporters of armed opposition groups, lawyers, journalists and protesters, including children. Often, they are initially picked up for "unofficial" interrogation during which time they have no access to a lawyer or their families. Even minors are being held under the law, the report says.
Amnesty International called upon the government of Jammu and Kashmir to repeal the law and end the system of detentions. It also asked the government to release all detainees or charge those suspected of committing criminal acts with recognized offences and try them fairly in a court of law.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed in full by both. The region is also one of most militarized in the world with hundreds of thousands of troops present on both sides of the Line of Control - the de facto border between the two countries.
