SRINAGAR; 19, April 2013: Calling upon New Delhi and the Jammu and Kashmir government to repeal the Public Safety Act and other legislations that facilitate the use of administrative detentions in the state, Amnesty International Thursday urged the people to send petitions seeking release of the two teenage boys detained under the PSA.
An Amnesty spokesman said that Asif Shaksaz and Sajad Mir, both of Srinagar, and Aadil Khan of Sopore, were arrested and detained without charge on March 25, March 8 and March 14 respectively under the PSA for “stone-pelting and disruption of peace.”
“The police took Sajad Mir and Aadil Khan, without telling their families, to Kotbalwal Jail in Jammu, about 300km from Srinagar and Sopore. Asif was arrested for criminal offences on March 18 and released on bail on March 25, but police issued a PSA detention order for him the same day, amounting to revolving door detention, or repeated detention on the same or similar charges designed to keep people in detention without charge,” the Amnesty spokesman said.
Asif, the spokesman said, was held in different police stations in Srinagar until April 7, when he was released for an emergency appendectomy.
“He is recuperating at home, but the police have said they will take him into custody again on April 22. It is not clear whether they intend to detain him again under the PSA,” the spokesman said.
“The police claim that all three boys are 19 years old. However, copies of Asif Shaksaz and Aadil Khan’s school records show they are 15 and 17 respectively. Sajad Mir’s family do not have any proof of his age, as they did not register his birth or send him to school, but they claim that he is 16 years old. An amendment to the PSA made it illegal for anyone less than 18 years of age to be detained under the Act.”
The spokesman said that Sajad’s and Aadil’s families have been unable to contact their children and are unaware of the conditions in which they are detained. Their lawyers have filed petitions challenging the PSA detention orders.
Amnesty has urged the people across the globe to write appeals to India’s Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah before May 29 urging them to immediately end the administrative detention of Sajad Mir and Aadil Khan under the PSA, and ensure that Asif is not unlawfully detained again. The spokesman has also asked the people to send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited in their respective countries.
“Calling on them to either release Sajad Mir and Aadil Khan or charge them with recognizably criminal offences, and guarantee them a fair trial, as set out in the Jammu and Kashmir Juvenile Justice Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” the spokesman said.
The statement asks the people to urge the two governments to order an investigation of the detention of all three, as well as the broader practice of detaining children in Jammu and Kashmir, and bring those responsible to justice.
“Calling on them to end all administrative detentions and repeal the (PSA) and any other legislation that facilitates the use of administrative detentions,” the spokesman said.