Relevant Extracts on India

(During 1999) there continued to be significant human rights abuses, despite extensive constitutional and statutory safeguards. Serious human rights abuses included: political and other extrajudicial killings, including faked encounter killings and deaths of suspects in police custody throughout the country and excessive use of force by security forces combating active insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir and several north-eastern states; torture and rape by police and other agents of the Government; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast; continued detention throughout the country of thousands arrested under special security legislation; lengthy pretrial detention; prolonged detention while undergoing trial; lengthy delays in trials; occasional limits on freedom of the press and freedom of movement; harassment and arrest of human rights monitors; extensive societal violence against women; legal and societal discrimination against women; female bondage and forced prostitution; child prostitution and infanticide; discrimination against the disabled; serious discrimination and violence against indigenous people and scheduled castes and tribes; widespread intercaste and communal violence; societal violence against. Christians and Muslims; widespread exploitation of indentured, bonded, and child labor; and trafficking in women and children.

Many of these abuses are generated by intense social tensions, violent secessionist movements, and the authorities' attempts to repress them, and deficient police methods and training. These problems are acute in Jammu and Kashmir, where ... security forces summarily killed suspected militants and civilians; with few exceptions, they acted with impunity.

The concerted campaign of execution-style killings of civilians by Kashmiri militant groups, begun in1998, continued and included several killings of political leaders and party workers. Separatist militants were responsible for numerous, serious abuses, including extrajudicial executions of members of the armed forces and civilians and other political killings, torture, and brutality. Separatist militants also were responsible for kidnapping and extortion in Jammu' and Kashmir and northeast India ..

Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing Political killings by government forces (including deaths in custody and faked encounter killings) continued at a high level in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and several northeastern states, where separatist insurgencies continued. Security forces offered bounties for wanted militants brought in dead or alive ...

Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

... Torture is common throughout the country, and authorities often use torture during interrogations. In other instances, they torture detainees to extort money and sometimes as summary punishment ...

Arbitrary Arrest, Detention or Exile

There were credible reports of widespread arbitrary arrest and detention under (special security) laws.

Although ... the TADA, lapsed in May 1995, 1,502 persons previously arrested under the Act continued to be held as of January 1, 1997, in a number of states ... Few persons have been released as a result of the review. Criminal cases are proceeding against most of those still held under the TADA ...

Denial of Fair Public Trial

... In Jammu and Kashmir, the judicial system barely functions ... Courts there are reluctant to hear cases involving terrorist crimes and fail to act expeditiously on habeas corpus cases, if they act at all ... There were a few convictions of alleged terrorists in the Jammu High Court during the year. Many more accused militants have been in pretrial detention for years ... There were no reports of political prisoners.

Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence

... The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Assam have special powers to search and arrest without a warrant ..

The Indian Telegraph Act authorizes the surveillance of communications, including monitoring telephone conversations and intercepting personal mail ... Every state government has used these powers, as has the central Government.

Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian Law in Internal Conflicts

Government forces continue to commit serious violations of humanitarian law in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir ... Under the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, both passed in July 1990, security forces personnel have extraordinary powers, including authority to shoot suspected lawbreakers and those persons disturbing the peace and to destroy structures suspected of harbouring militants or arms.

Civilian deaths caused by security forces appeared to diminish for the sixth consecutive year in Jammu and Kashmir, although final statistics for 1999 were not available ... The security forces have not ceased to abduct and extrajudicially execute suspected militants, nor have they accepted accountability for these abuses ... (There is) transfer of some of such actions to government-supported counter-militants ...

Kashmiri militant groups also committed serious abuses. In addition to political killings, kidnappings and rapes of politicians and civilians ... Insurgents engaged in extortion and carried out acts of random terror that killed hundreds of Kashmiris. Many of the militants are not Indian citizens, but are Afghani, Pakistani, and other nationalities .:. In the fall there was a significant upsurge in militant violence towards security forces, and a tendency to use heavy weapons ...

There was a parallel decline in massacres of unarmed civilians; nevertheless, such attacks continued. Militants carried out several execution-style mass murders of Hindu (Pandit) villagers in Jammu and Kashmir ...

Respect of Speech and Press

Under the Official Secrets Act, the Government may restrict publication of sensitive stories; however, the Government sometimes interprets this broadly to suppress criticism of its policies ... The 1971 Newspapers Incitements to Offenses Act remains in effect in Jammu and Kashmir ...

The Government maintains a list of banned books that cannot be imported or sold in the country.

Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

... Srinagar and other parts of Jammu and Kashmir occasionally came under curfew but more often were affected by strikes called by militants.

The Government implemented a new requirement that NGO's secure the prior approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs before organizing international conferences.,.

Freedom of Religion

No national law bars proselytizing by Indian Christians. Foreign missionaries generally can renew their visas, but since the mid-1960's the Government has refused to admit new resident foreign missionaries ...During the year, as in the past, state officials refused to issue permits for foreign Christian missionaries to enter some northeastern states ..

Missionaries and religious organizations must comply with the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) which restricts funding from abroad and, therefore, the ability of certain groups to finance their activities. The Government is empowered to ban a religious organization if it has violated the FCRA, has provoked inter-community friction, or has been involved in terrorism or sedition ...

Speaking publicly against other beliefs is considered dangerous to public order, and is prohibited ..

In February, 1999 following a series of attacks on Christians, the office of the director general of police in Gujarat reportedly sent a circular instructing district officials to collect information about Christians, including the number of missionaries, their funding sources, and the "tricks" they used to convert persons ... On March 2, the government of Gujarat withdrew the effort. However, in December, 1999 the United Christian Forum for Human Rights ... expressed concern to the press about a "survey" of Christian institutions and missionaries allegedly being conducted by the Delhi police ... Hindu extremist groups continued to attack Christians. In many. cases, the government response was inadequate, consisting largely of statements criticizing the violence ... but with few efforts to hold accountable those ... responsible ... Throughout the year, the Government generally described the violence and attacks as a series of isolated local phenomena, in some states, calling for a national debate on conversions.

In 1998 and early 1999 there was an unusual and serious outbreak of societal violence against Christians, apparently sparked by rumors of "forced conversions" of Hindus to Christianity ..

On occasion, Hindu-Muslim violence led to killings and a cycle of retaliation. In some instances, local police and government officials abetted the violence, and at times security forces were responsible for abuses. Police on occasion accompanied Hindu fundamentalists who were responsible for violence ...

The RSS ... believes that all Indians should adhere to Hindu cultural values ... Most BJP leaders are aso RSS members. The BJP's longstanding cultural agenda includes calls for construction of a Hindu temple ... on the site of a mosque in Ayodhya that was destroyed by a Hindu mob in 1992 .. , and for the enactment of a uniform civil code that would apply to members of all religions. All of these proposals are opposed strongly by some. minority religious groups. However, the BJP-led national Government took no steps to implement these measures .. Some Christian groups have noted the coincidence of (BJP's) coming to power and an increase in complaints of discrimination against minority religious communities. These groups also claim that BJP officials at state and local levels have become increasingly uncooperative.

Freedom of Movement within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration and Repatriation

On September 23, the Government prevented Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari, two members of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a Kashmiri separatist group, from leaving the country to attend a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

Vehicle checkpoints, at which Border Security Forces routinely frisk and question occupants, are a common feature throughout most of Jammu and Kashmir.

... The-occasional deportation of Bangladeshis judged to have entered the country illegally continued during the year, but there was no repetition of the systematic roundup of Bangladeshis for mass deportation that was conducted by the government of Maharashtra in 1998. The Government estimates that there are 10million Bangladeshis living illegally in the country ...

Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government

... More than 100 persons were killed in election- related violence in various parts of the country, predominantly in Kashmir, Tripura, Assam, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Bihar and there were localized allegations of voter fraud. Human rights groups reported that security forces in some parts of Jammu & and Kashmir compelled residents to vote and that at least three persons who refused were killed ... In Jammu and Kashmir, militants committed numerous abuses – many against civilians - to disrupt voting ..