Thousands of extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, mass graves and recurrent incidents of violence brushed under the carpet away from plain sight. Under the power of the world’s largest democracy, an organized system of institutionalized violence has evolved, specifically in the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. To enforce and legitimize this system of persecution and instrumental oppression, legislation such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is employed.
AFSPA, one of the most dreaded words in a Kashmiri’s vocabulary, is not less then a curse on the population of the occupied territory. Conventionally applied in “disturbed areas” of the Indian federation, the provisions of the act empower their Army personnel to shoot and use force, even to the extent to kill anyone that they consider is acting in contravention with law and order. Further, it allows them to arrest any person on the basis of suspicion and to enter any building or stop and search any vehicle, all without any warrant.
A provision of this law also requires all arrested people to be handed over to the nearest police station with a report on the circumstances of the arrest, but the more than 8,000 enforced disappearances in Kashmir from 1989 to 2009 speak volumes on the implementation of this provision.
The Special Powers Act was extended to Kashmir in 1990, but it has been enforced in the Northeastern states declared “disturbed areas” for long before that….