news details |
|
|
| Has AI intervention made any difference? | | News ANALYSIS | |
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Oct 14: A year after Amnesty International released its report `PSA: A lawless Law', the legislation continues to be as lawless as it was in 2011. In a candid admission the AI admitted yesterday that the state government was still using the Public Safety Act (PSA) to detain individuals without charge or trial in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in violation of their human rights.
The statement has shocked all those who had been seeking AI intervention in Kashmir for the past two decades. According to rough estimates, around twenty thousand appeals from political, social, religious and human rights urging government of India to allow AI to visit Kashmir were made since 1990.
New Delhi finally allowed the International Human rights watchdog to visit Kashmir in May last year. A report documenting how the PSA violates human rights was released in September last year. The AI people even called on the Chief Minister who promised to
consider the recommendations in the report.
The AI team is again in Srinagar only to find no visible change on the ground. The team also found that PSA detention orders were still being used against children despite it now being prohibited.
"The J&K authorities continue to use the PSA to circumvent the rule of law and the criminal justice system. They resort to PSA detentions instead of charging and trying persons suspected of offences in court" said Ananth Guruswamy, Director, Amnesty International India. "J&K authorities often keep persons in detention even after the detentions have been quashed by the High Court".
The AI is not the only organization that stands shocked by unchanging attitude of the authorities in Jammu Kashmir. Even the recommendations by UN officials who visited Kashmir in recent months have been ignored.
The Director of the Indian Chapter of the AI believes the PSA violates international human rights law. Similar concern has been voiced by the Indian Civil Society time and again without results. But in Jammu Kashmir AI, UN and the civil society do not make a difference. It is the will of the ruler that matters. During his interaction with the AI team last year, Omar Abdullah justified use of PSA for `political stability' of the state.
The PSA was enacted to save the forests from smugglers. But Sher-e-Kashmir ensured that the legislation had enough deadly fangs to crush dissent. Even the Chief of Police in Kashmir has acknowledged that around 15,600 people were detained under the PSA without charge or trial in the last two decades. Detainees include political leaders and activists, suspected members or supporters of armed opposition groups, lawyers, journalists and protesters, including children. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
