Rights abuse rampant in India: Amnesty
Kounteya Sinha
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London:
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Amnesty International has pulled up India, saying impunity is widespread for human rights abuses by state and non-state actors in the country .In its annual report, to be released on Wednesday, the global human rights watch dog has said state authorities often failed to prevent and at times committed crimes against children, women, dalits and adivasi (indigenous) people. Arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and extrajudicial executions often went unpunished, it has said.
A case in point was the arbitrary arrests and detentions of protesters and human rights defenders. National Human Rights Commission data indicated 123 illegal arrests and 203 cases of unlawful detention were reported from April to July 2014.
Amnesty has said “antiterror“ laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which did not meet international human rights standards, were used. It has also criticized India for failing to clean up the contaminated factory site of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy . “Survivors continue to experience health problems linked to the leak and to pollution from the factory site,“ Amnesty has said.
The rights group has also brought to light the menace of extrajudicial executions. It has said proceedings contin ued before the Supreme Court relating to a petition seeking investigations into over 1,500 alleged “fake encounters“ -a term referring to staged extrajudicial executions -in Manipur. Courts in Delhi, Bihar and Punjab convicted police personnel of being involved in fake encounter killings.
A case in point was the arbitrary arrests and detentions of protesters and human rights defenders. National Human Rights Commission data indicated 123 illegal arrests and 203 cases of unlawful detention were reported from April to July 2014.
Amnesty has said “antiterror“ laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which did not meet international human rights standards, were used. It has also criticized India for failing to clean up the contaminated factory site of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy . “Survivors continue to experience health problems linked to the leak and to pollution from the factory site,“ Amnesty has said.
The rights group has also brought to light the menace of extrajudicial executions. It has said proceedings contin ued before the Supreme Court relating to a petition seeking investigations into over 1,500 alleged “fake encounters“ -a term referring to staged extrajudicial executions -in Manipur. Courts in Delhi, Bihar and Punjab convicted police personnel of being involved in fake encounter killings.
