AI FOR FAIR TRIAL OF KASHMIRI DETAINEES BOOKED UNDER PSA

Posted on March 16, 2015

The India chapter of global human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, has urged the authorities to ensure the conduct of fair trial of the Kashmiri detainees booked under draconian law, Public Safety Act. According to media sources, the Amnesty International India in a statement said that the release of Hurriyet leader, Masarrat Aalam Butt, who had been detained multiple times under the PSA had once again drawn attention to the abuses enabled by black law.“Estimates of the number detained under the PSA since 1991 range from 8,000-20,000. In August 2014, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister said in the legislative assembly that 76 people were being detained under the PSA as of July 2014,” it stated.The Amnesty International stated that it had extensively documented the widespread use of the Public Safety Act to detain several people every year without charge or trial. “In March 2011, Amnesty International published the report ‘A Lawless Law’ on administrative detentions under the PSA, documenting the various ways in which the use of the PSA violated international law. In July 2012, Amnesty International published another report ‘Still a ‘Lawless Law’‘ which outlined how, despite legal and policy developments, key human rights concerns with the PSA and its application remain unchanged,” it added.The Amnesty International said that its research had showed that the implementation of the PSA was often arbitrary and abusive, with many of those being held having committed no recognisably criminal acts. The PSA’s vague and over-broad provisions facilitate a range of human rights violations in practice, it maintained.”Administrative detention under the PSA circumvents the safeguards of a fair trial, and undermines the rule of law. The PSA also provides immunity from prosecution for officials operating under it,” it added.

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