The Amnesty International has expressed serious concern at the alleged misuse of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act and urged the State government to repeal it and end the system of administrative detention.
In its report, “A Lawless Law': Detentions Under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act,” released on Monday, the Amnesty International expressed itself against the State government's method of detaining individuals for years at a time, without trial, depriving them of human rights protections, which are otherwise applicable under the Indian law.
The report is based on a research conducted by an Amnesty International team during its visit to Srinagar in May 2010 and a subsequent analysis of government and legal documents relating to more than 600 individuals detained under the Act between 2003 and 2010.
The Amnesty International pointed out how Shabir Ahmad Shah, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, was kept in and out of prison for much of the time since 1989, when a popular movement and armed uprising for independence began in the State.
“The research shows that instead of using the institutions, procedures and human rights safeguards of ordinary criminal justice, the authorities are using the PSA to secure the long-term detention of political activists, suspected members or supporters of armed groups and a range of other individuals against whom there is insufficient evidence for a trial or conviction — to keep them “out of circulation,” the report said.
