Srinagar, Mar 22: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday said the report by the Amnesty International thrashing Public Safety Act needs to be examined before commenting on it.
Omar said he will not have a knee-jerk reaction to the Amnesty report on abuse of Public Safety Act in the state. 
 “The Amnesty report deserves to be examined in it’s totality before comments are rushed in to,” he tweeted on the micro-blogging website Twitter.
 The rights group on Monday released a 70-page report titled, ‘Lawless Law, Detentions under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act’. The report slammed the state government for abusing the Act. It said thousands of people have been booked under the PSA in the last two decade without any charge or trial.
 Chief Minister said he’s yet to receive a copy of the report. “And those of you working your selves into a frenzy about the Amnesty report - I have not been given a copy so what do I comment about,” Omar tweeted.
 Amnesty’s India chapter head Vikramjeet Batra Monday said that he failed to secure an appointment with the chief minister despite being in touch with his office for the past 10 days.
 In another tweet, Omar also took a jibe at opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti’s reference to his tweeting in Jammu. “I’m very amused by Mehbooba’s reference to my Tweeting in her speech in the assembly today,” he said.

‘PILLAI ASSURED REDUCTION IN PSA DETENTIONS’
 Meanwhile, Union Home Secretary, G K Pillai, according to Amnesty International, has assured the human rights watchdog that there will be 80 to 90 percent decrease in PSA detentions in Jammu and Kashmir in coming days.
 The three-member Amnesty team comprising, Madhu Malhotra, Romesh Gopalakrishanan and Bikramjeet Batra, had met Pillai in New Delhi before coming to Kashmir to release their report on PSA detentions.
 “We had a positive meeting with Pillai and he assured us that PSA detentions in J&K would drop phenomenally this year,” Bikramjeet Batra told a local news gathering agency KNS.
 However, Batra said that Pillai told them PSA was prerogative of the state government. “We told him that he should instruct the state government to amend PSA in the state Assembly,” Batra said.
 Pillia has also assured the Amnesty team that he will take up the issue of minors’ detention with the J&K government. “According to J&K law below 16 years is a minor while national law says under-18 years is a minor. State Legislative Assembly can amend the law,” he said.
 Batra said that he is confident that both State and Central governments would implement the recommendations they have made in their report. “Amnesty will apply pressure on the government to implement the recommendations,” he said.
 Asked whether report of Kashmir interlocutors had any contradiction with AI report, Batra said, “We had no access to their report, but we have given them copy of our report. They (interlocutors) are looking at broader issues while ours is specific to PSA and human rights.”

Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST