Compared to 2016, PSA detentions doubled in 2018

In 2018, the number of persons detained under the Public Safety Act, a controversial legislation which recently generated a heated debate, doubled in comparison to 2016 when Kashmir erupted into months-long protests against the killing of Hizb commander Burhan Wani. 

Greater Kashmir has learnt from official sources that a total of 510 persons were booked in Kashmir in 2018, as compared to 230 in 2016.

   

In 2017, the year when trend of people marching towards encounter sites started, a total of 410 people were booked under PSA in Kashmir. 

The majority of the persons booked under PSA in 2018 hail from southern Kashmir districts.

“Kulgam district tops the list followed by Shopian, Pulwama and Anantnag districts,” said an official of the home department on the condition of anonymity.

He said the maximum number of people booked under PSA in 2018 have been lodged in Kot Balwal Jail of Jammu.

The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act was passed in 1978 by then government against timber smugglers. The law has come under immense criticism from rights groups with Amnesty International terming it as “lawless law” and saying after 2010 protests, “preventive detention became a tool for quelling peaceful political dissent” in Kashmir.

Under PSA, a person booked does not face any trial for six months, which can be then extended to six more months and later to one year or two years without any trial. 

Legal experts say a person cannot be booked under PSA again on the basis of the same grounds that led to his detention in the first place. But state authorities have been detaining persons in this manner.

Repeating the grounds of detention, in fact, becomes the reason for the High Court to quash PSA detention orders.

Recently, National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah declared: “If voted to power, Public Safety Act revocation will be ensured.”

Abdullah had stated: “Why would our youth be arrested under Public Safety Act? Governments are meant to heal the wounds of people and to provide relief to them. That is why we want a government on our own so that we will rectify certain things.”

Omar’s assertion had generated sharp criticism from People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which wrote on Twitter: “A party that conceived the idea and Acts like PSA, POTA [Prevention of Terrorism Act], AFSPA to muzzle the dissent voices, rigged elections in 1987, booked elected people in jails and declared them militants are now asking for majority to revoke PSA. Illogical!”

This generated a stir within NC ranks, prompting Omar to write on Twitter: “You had a chance after 2014 when you people were praising PM [Narendra] Modi to the skies. Why didn’t you revoke PSA or attempt to have AFSPA removed?”

Separatists also joined the chorus over PSA, with Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) chief Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai last week attacking NC and saying that Omar has “forgotten the fact that this black law was introduced by the National Conference government in the state”.

However, political commentator Prof. Noor Mohammad Baba said all political parties make certain assertions ahead of elections. “At the time of elections all political parties make promises but much would depend on whether they would seriously pursue it after coming to power,” said Baba.

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