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Basharat Peer in New Delhi
The Central government's decision to extend the Armed Forces (J&K) Special Powers Act to the Jammu region has come under fire from various human rights activists for its draconian nature.
The Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (J&K) Special Powers Act allow the armed forces to conduct searches, make seizures and even open fire without authorisation from the civil administration.
"This law has been in operation in the valley since 1990 and in the Northeast in one form or the other since 1958. It has legalised extra-judicial killings, burning of houses and rapes by the security forces," Harish Dhawan, a human rights activist of the People's Union for Democratic Rights, said.
"Our fact-finding teams have found numerous examples of rapes and extra-judicial killings by the security forces in Kashmir and the Northeast. Now, similar things are going to happen in the Jammu region," he said.
The utility of the extension of the law to Jammu region has also come under question. For, the government could not contain armed militants in Kashmir by the application of the said law in 1990.
"Giving special powers to the armed forces in Kashmir led to alienation of the Kashmiris. It in fact converted the terrorist movement to mass insurgency," Balraj Puri, convenor of the Public Union of Civil Liberties, told rediff.com
Puri described the inclusion of the Jammu region into "disturbed areas" as an admission of failure of the political leadership and civil administration in the region.
He asserted that the arbitrary use of the powers that the act confers on the forces would further alienate the people.
It is not just the increase in human rights violations that the activists fear. They are also worried that the use of such laws would scuttle the growth of civil society and close down the democratic channels of protest.
"If you look at Ireland, where similar repressive laws were used, the result was that no civil society developed for a long time. In such cases, the democratic channels of protest close down and the electoral government becomes subordinate to the armed forces. It leaves only armed struggle as a way of protest," Kumar Sanjay Singh, human rights activist and Delhi University professor, said.
Legal luminaries too have their reservations about the Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (J&K) Special Powers Act.
"I do not agree with these laws. They are an arbitrary weapon in the hands of the army. The Supreme Court had laid down stringent laws to be followed by the armed forces while exercising the powers emanating from these laws. But they are rarely followed on ground," Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaisingh said.
The extension of these laws to the Jammu region was not justified and would only lead to an increase in the human rights violations, she added.
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