India should scrap a controversial law which gives security forces battling militancy in the Occupied Kashmir and the north-east sweeping powers to search, arrest or shoot people, the United Nations said on Friday. Human rights groups say the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is a draconian law which the military arbitrarily uses to violate civilians' rights.
Indian authorities and the army deny those charges, and say the legislation is essential to root out insurgents. Occupied Kashmir, the India's only majority-Muslim region, has been the trigger for two out of three wars between India and Pakistan. After a 12-day visit to India, the UN's Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, urged New Delhi to repeal the law, saying it was "a symbol of excessive state power" that "clearly violates international law." "A law such as AFSPA has no role to play in a democracy and should be scrapped," Heyns told reporters.
A defence ministry spokesman declined on Friday to comment on Heyns' remarks. Heyns, who will submit a report of his findings to the UN Human Rights Council next year, said he heard numerous testimonies from families of victims who had reportedly been killed in arbitrary executions carried out by security forces.
Among other powers, the AFSPA allows security forces to fire upon, or use force against, an assembly of five or more people, or anyone in possession of a deadly weapon. It gives legal immunity to the officials, so they can be neither sued nor prosecuted. In 2010, over 100 people were killed by government forces in protests against the AFSPA in Occupied Kashmir. Local authorities in some areas have said they will stop using the law, but this has been blocked by the Indian army. "The position may have improved in some respects, but has not been resolved, and the legacy of the past is bound to continue into the future," Heyns said.
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