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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Arbitrary detention, torture of terrorism suspects in India: HRW by Dharitri Bhattacharjee

Arbitrary detention, torture of terrorism suspects in India: HRW by Dharitri Bhattacharjee

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published Published on Feb 3, 2011   modified Modified on Feb 3, 2011
"When I asked my son if he was tortured, he said, 'They were hardly going to treat me with love...They used to make us memorize the police version of the case. We were not allowed to sleep until we could recite that version.' "

These words by Nisar Ahmed are an excerpt from the106-page report released yesterday, by Human Right Watch titled, "The 'Anti-Nationals': Arbitrary Detention and Torture of Terrorism Suspects in India."

Ahmed's son, Saqib Nisar has been charged for his role in the 2008 bombings as a member of Indian Mujahideen. Three bombings in 2008, in Jaipur on May 13, in Ahmedabad on July 26, and in New Delhi on September 13 claimed 152 lives and injured many more.

Ahmed's confessions about his son's experience who is still in police custody is one of the 160 or more interviews that HRW compiled with terror suspects, their relatives and lawyers, civil society activists, security experts, and law enforcement officials.

The HRW report documents consistent abuse by Indian security forces in their response to the scourge of terrorism attacks. State police, jail officials, and other authorities have committed a range of human rights violations, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, and religious discrimination.

The report also includes credible allegations that some of the 11 Hindus arrested for a separate 2008 bombing incident in the city of Malegaon, Maharashtra state, were also subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, and religion-based ill-treatment.

In a separate interview Meenakshi Gangly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch explained how the "police is not just overworked and understaffed, but always subjected to constant pressure which leads to abusive behaviour." Provisions under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act that contain vaguely worded definitions of terrorism, and double the maximum period of pre-charge detention for terrorism suspects to 180 days, well beyond internationally accepted limits, vastly increase police powers of search and arrest.

The HRW report also clarifies that authorities have shown welcome restraint in responding to three more recent attacks in 2010 in Pune, New Delhi and Varanasi that they attributed to the Indian Mujahideen.

"While the authorities' recent responses to attacks are encouraging, if India is to achieve long-term success in countering militant violence, it will need to transform individual acts of restraint and respect for the law into institutional changes," Ganguly said

HRW cracks down on NHRC
 
In an unprecedented attack against NHRC, the HRW report points to lapses in the Batla House encounter investigation summary submitted by NHRC, following the Delhi High Court order. The report says that NHRC only relied on the police version of events.

In police raids that followed Delhi bombings of September 2008, two Indian Mujahideen suspects died in circumstances that aroused suspicion. The HRW report points out that in not probing the suspects' killings of its own accord, the NHRC ignored guidelines that require all such killings to be investigated.

A senior NHRC official who did not wished to be named responded to these allegations by pointing out that a clean chit was given to the Delhi police in the Batla House case only after procedures had been duly followed and scientific and medical reports like the post mortem report, examined. The official also denied that High Court directed NHRC to report on the case. NHRC had already taken cognizance of the killings, as it should have.

In a separate interview, Ganguly expressed concern that though NHRC has often picked up issues raised by HRW and there is no tension, "NHRC has limited ability to independently investigate human rights violations by the army or paramilitary. Unlike in the past when NHRC took strong positions, to ensure protection of human rights, we now see that its interventions have become diluted."

The NHRC official agreed that compared to other cases, the commission faces certain restrictions when investigating the army or the police.

The Times of India, 3 February, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Arbitrary-detention-torture-of-terrorism-suspects-in-India-HRW/articleshow/7418075.cms


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