Authorities in Srinagar on Wednesday cancelled the permission granted earlier to Amnesty International to release its report on “misuse” of the Public Safety Act (PSA) in Kashmir.
“The event was cancelled as the district administration denied permission,” an Amnesty spokesman said here.
Amnesty had invited reporters in the Valley to the release of its report titled Tyranny of a ‘lawless law’: Detention without charge or trial under the J&K Public Safety Act . The Act allows authorities to arrest a person without any trial for six months.
J&K Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam said the judiciary in J&K took care of any misuse of the PSA. “We have competent courts. In many cases, PSA was upheld and also struck down. We have enough checks and balances,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, the separatists’ umbrella grouping, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), asked Amnesty “to take cognisance of the plight of Kashmiri prisoners languishing in jails outside J&K”.
“Regular frisking, searching and shifting of the personal belongings of the detainees in jails was aimed at aggravating the ordeal,” said a JRL spokesman.
