India abusing ‘lawless’ detention act in IoK: Amnesty

The rights group says PSA should be scrapped under which India hold children, old people and the disabled

SRINAGAR: The Indian government is widely misusing a law allowing for detention without trial in the Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK), and fuelling animosity with it, the human rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

The Public Safety Act (PSA) was a “lawless law” under which the authorities hold children, old people and the disabled, and it should be scrapped, the group said.

Indian forces book two more Kashmiris under PSA

“This act is contributing to inflaming tensions between the state authorities and local populace and must be immediately repealed,” said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India.

India has long defended the 41-year-old PSA as essential to maintain law and order in the Muslim-majority region.

“There is a judicial system in place where there are checks and balances,” Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said in defence of the law.

Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both Pakistan and India. New Delhi blames Islamabad for fomenting trouble in IoK. Pakistan has always denied the allegations.

The law allows for detention for up to two years if a person is deemed acting “in any manner prejudicial to the security of the state”.

Amnesty said that was a breach of international human rights law.

Police did not let the group launch its report in Srinagar on Wednesday, citing the “law and order” situation, a spokesperson for the right group said.

In June 2018, India said a report by the United Nations, that argued the PSA obstructed the normal course of law in IoK, was “a selective compilation of largely unverified information”.

Amnesty based its report on the analysis of 210 cases of detention under the PSA between 2012 and 2018.

The law prohibits the detention of children but Amnesty documented several cases where minors were knowingly detained.

In more than 90 per cent of cases, the group analysed, detainees faced both PSA detentions and criminal proceedings in parallel, on the basis of the same or similar allegations.

“The police appear to use the PSA as a safety net, using it to secure the detention of suspects who are released, or likely to be released, on bail,” the group said.

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It said it found 71 cases of revolving-door detentions, in which authorities kept on issuing orders to keep people behind bars.

One Kashmiri leader, Masarat Alam Bhat, has been detained for a cumulative period of 20 years since 1990, despite never being charged with a crime, Amnesty said.