A controversial law giving Indian soldiers legal impunity in restive Kashmir is fuelling grave human rights abuses including the killing of innocent civilians, a major rights group said Wednesday.
Amnesty International said the national government had refused to prosecute any soldiers accused by local police of rights abuses in the region since the draconian law was introduced in 1990.
“This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses,” said Minar Pimple, Amnesty’s senior director of global operations.
The London-based group released a report on the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in insurgency-hit Indian Kashmir.
The emergency law gives thousands of soldiers and paramilitary forces sweeping powers to shoot on sight, detain suspects without trial and seize property.
Successive governments and the army have staunchly resisted calls for repeal of the law, arguing it is needed to quell insurgencies and track down militants.
But Amnesty and other groups have repeatedly said the law, also in force in India’s restive and remote northeast, was breeding further violence and alienation.
