Amnesty Urges Scrapping Of Draconian Law In Indian Kashmir

3/21/2011

(RTTNews) - London-based rights group, Amnesty International (AI) has called for repeal of a draconian law used to detain people without trial in Indian-administered Kashmir, reports said on Monday.

Under the provisions of Public Safety Act (PSA), persons could be held under detention for up to two years without chance of securing bail.

Amnesty, while urging New Delhi to do way with the tough measure, pointed out that around 20,000 people have been detained in Kashmir using the PSA's provisions.

The border state has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan, having waged three full-fledged wars over Kashmir. New Delhi has often accused Islamabad of fighting a low-intensity war by arming militant separatists and pushing them across the border to carry out terror strikes on Indian targets.

However, Pakistan has termed this as mere anti-Pakistan propaganda alleging that it was being used as a ploy to deflect attention from serious problems. India for its part says it has hard evidence to establish Pakistan's role in fomenting trouble.

According to an Amnesty report released in the Kashmiri capital Srinagar on Monday, the detentions coincided with the onset of insurgency in the Kashmir valley in 1989. It is also critical of the judiciary for failing to prevent rights violations.

"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. 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," an Amnesty official said.

Among those detained under PSA are lawyers, journalists and anti-government protesters with not even children spared. The Amnesty has urged the J&K government to set free all those held under the PSA's provisions.

There was a brief lull in militant separatism which peaked in Kashmir in the late eighties. However, lately a spurt in militant activity has been witnessed there.

Source: RTT News.
Link: http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1580337&SM=1.