Kashmir Scenario Exclusive
Public Safety Act is back and haunting Kashmiris once again, with once again hundreds being slapped with PSA to quell the 2016 agitation. Similar pattern was followed in 2008, 2010 agitations as PSA was used rampantly.
In 2015, the Jammu and Kashmir Government had stated that 1,309 persons were detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) during last six years from various parts of the state.
In 2011, renowned global Human rights organization Amnesty International had defined PSA as Lawless Law. “scores of people are detained under the PSA in J&K, many of them political activists and youth suspected of throwing stones at security forces. Instead of charging and trying persons suspected of committing offences in a fair trial in a court of law, the J& K authorities continue to circumvent the rule of law by resorting to the PSA,” Bikramjit Batra, campaigner of Amnesty International South Asia, said.
” The repeal of the PSA would send a strong signal to the residents of J& K about the government’s commitment to the rule of law and human rights,” he added.
In groundbreaking development, after the horror of Public Safety act was revealed by Amnesty International The Jammu and Kashmir government made amendments in Public Safety Act known as Public Safety Act (Amendment) Ordinance 2011” thus approving among other recommendations that a minor (under 18 years of age) would no longer be detained under PSA.
Besides, the detention period under PSA shall be reduced from the existing one year to three months in case of public disorder and from otherwise 2 years to six months in a case involving security of the State.
However, in both situations there is provision for revision and the detention period can be extended to 1 year and 2 years respectively.
Despite amendments, it is learnt and alleged by rights groups that in gross violation of law the state government and its forces are slapping PSA throughout Kashmir .
Recently, A report by a Delhi-based Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) observed that more than 700 minors in Kashmir have been booked under the Public Safety Act in a clear contradiction with the amendment on 28th March 2013 bringing into effect the Jammu & Kashmir (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2013 which bars the detention of persons under the age of 18 years under PSA.
Pertinently, PSA was first introduced in J&K in 1978 to prevent timber smuggling but has been subsequently used against political opponents by consecutive governments .
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has made mockery of her own words when in a statement on July 13, 2013 she had stated that imprisonment of Mushtaq-ul-Islam for the 11th time under this dreaded law exposes the dual policy of chief minister, and the wide gulf between his speeches and the actions of his government.
Mehbooba had at that time added the present Government has spared nobody and has been using PSA not only against its political opponents but against children and youth.
Now sane voices are questioning what logic Mehbooba as CM is applying while bringing PSA back in a gruesome way.
Advocate Babar Jan Qadri, who has been continuously dealing with PSA Cases states – “The use of preventive detention laws are actually reflection of failure of democracy and the concept of liberty. It is unfortunate that the Kashmir is still being managed the way Hitler used to manage Nazi Germany. Why should India use dictatorial approach in Kashmir ?the answer is that Kashmir is not politically happy with the political dispensation imposed by India. India needs to address Kashmir politically and legally instead of putting humans behind bars using the stone age methods in the shape of preventive detention laws.
India can’t break the resolve of the people who are resisting the brutal oppression in the form undemocratic regime in violation of the internationally acknowledged right of self determination. The wrath of preventive detentions is such that tarnished the very reputation of India being the largest democracy and champion of human rights.”
PSA as a tool of suppression is believed to be wreaking havoc on democratic credentials in the already browbeaten valley of Kashmir.