Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
SRINAGAR—On May 15, a team of Kupwara police raided the residence of deceased Hurriyat leader Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai and arrested his two sons.
Mujahid Sehrai and Rashid Sehrai were taken to Kupwara where they were booked under Section 13 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Both sons were arrested in connection with a case registered at Tekkipora police station. Sources said some people had raised “pro-freedom and provocative slogans” during the funeral of Sehrai on May 6. Later, police registered a case against 20 people.
Sehrai, who was Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) chairman, was shifted to Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) hospital in Jammu after he developed serious complications in Udhampur Jail. However, on May 5, he lost the battle of life.
His two sons are among thousands of people booked under controversial UAPA in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian Express on Wednesday reported that Jammu and Kashmir government has booked over 2,300 people in more than 1,200 cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and 954 people under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Of these, 46 percent of those booked under UAPA and about 30 percent of those detained under PSA are still in jail, both inside and outside J&K.
Of the 2,364 people arrested under UAPA, 918 were held in 437 cases in 2019, 953 people in 557 cases in 2020, and 493 in 275 cases till July-end this year (249 cases in Kashmir, 26 in Jammu). Of these, 1,100 continue to remain in custody.
Figures presented in parliament reveal that more than 5161 people including politicians were taken under custody since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
In February, the then Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy informed the Upper House that as per the 2019 Crime in India Report compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the total number of persons arrested under UAPA in 2019 is 1,948.
Total number of the persons arrested and convicted from 2016 to 2019 under the UAPA in the country is 5,922 and 132 respectively. The NCRB does not maintain this data on the basis of religion, race, caste, or gender, the Minister stated.
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) data presented in the Lok Sabha in March revealed that there has been over 72% increase in the number of persons arrested under the anti-terror law-UAPA-in 2019 compared to 2015.
As many as 1948 persons were arrested under the UAPA in 1226 cases registered across the country in 2019. Such cases registered in 2015-2018 stood at 897, 922, 901 and 1182 and the number of those arrested was 1128, 999, 1554 and 1421 respectively.
In 2019, the highest number of such cases were registered in Manipur-306, followed by Tamil Nadu-270, Jammu and Kashmir-255, Jharkhand-105 and Assam-87 cases.
The highest number of arrests under the UAPA in the same year were made in Uttar Pradesh- 498, Manipur- 386, Tamil Nadu-308, Jammu and Kashmir- 227 and Jharkhand- 202.
“Cases under the UAPA are investigated by the State police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA). As far as the NIA is concerned, so far 48 special courts have been constituted across the country for the speedy trial of the terror-related cases,” Reddy had told Lok Sabha in a written reply.
