India extends detention of former Kashmir chief ministers under 'disputed' law
- 07 Feb 2020
The detention of two former Kashmir chief ministers has been extended by Indian authorities, police said on Friday. The former ministers have been in custody for the past six months, being held based on a law that allows them to be locked up for two years without charges.
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Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah got detained in August when New Delhi repelled the region’s autonomy forced a vice-like security and communications lockdown.
According to a police source in Kashmir, Mufti and Abdullah's provisional detention expired on Thursday, but they were immediately booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
The legislation was used against a third former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, the father of Omar Abdullah, in September to keep the 82-year-old under house arrest.
The PSA was established back in 1970s to bring an end to timber smuggling in Kashmir. However, since the 1989 uprising erupted, it has been used to detain thousands of people, activists say.
The UN human rights office in 2018 criticised special laws in Kashmir including the PSA saying they "impede accountability and jeopardise the right to remedy for victims of human rights violations."
Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti slammed use of "the draconian PSA" by the government. "Question is how much longer will we act as bystanders as they desecrate what this nation stands for?" she said on Twitter.
Dozens of other politicians and others including lawyers, trade unionists and activists also detained in August, some of them in prisons all over India, have been released gradually in recent weeks.