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1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor U.S. Department of State, February 25, 2000

INDIA India is a longstanding parliamentary democracy with a bicameral parliament. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led a 13-party coalition, took office in March 1998 and heads the Government. The Government lost a parliamentary vote of confidence on April 17, and new parliamentary elections were held in September and early October after the President dissolved the lower house of Parliament in April. President K.R. Narayanan, who was elected by an electoral college consisting of Members of Parliament and members of state assemblies, is Head of State and also has special emergency powers. The judiciary is independent. Although the 25 state governments have primary responsibility for maintaining law and order, the central Government provides guidance and support through the use of paramilitary forces throughout the country. The Union Ministry for Home Affairs controls most of the paramilitary forces, the internal intelligence bureaus, and the nationwide police service; it provides training for senior police officers for the state-organized police forces. The armed forces are under civilian control. Security forces committed significant human rights abuses, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir and in the northeastern states. India is in a transition from a government-controlled economy to one that is largely market oriented. The private sector is predominant in agriculture, most nonfinancial services, consumer goods manufacturing, and some heavy industry. Economic liberalization and structural reforms begun in 1991 continue, although momentum has slowed. The country's economic problems are compounded by rapid population growth of 1.7 percent per year with a current population of more than 1 billion. Income distribution remained very unequal, with the top 20 percent of the population receiving 39.3 percent of income and the bottom 20 percent receiving 9.2 percent of income. Forty percent of the urban population and half of the rural population live below the poverty level. 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 northeastern 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 judicial tolerance of the Government's heavy-handed antimilitant tactics, the refusal of security forces to obey court orders, and terrorist threats have disrupted the judicial system. The number of insurgency-related killings and acts of torture in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast by regular security forces showed no clear improvement from the previous year; this also was true in the northeast, despite negotiated cease-fires in the northeast between the Government and insurgent forces and between some tribal groups. 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 in 1998, 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 kidnaping and extortion in Jammu and Kashmir and northeast India. The spring and summer incursion of Pakistan-backed armed forces into territory on the Indian side of the line of control around Kargil in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian military campaign to repel the intrusion resulted in a large number of casualties among combatants on both sides, as well as some civilian deaths and the internal displacement of as many as 50,000 persons. Nearly 100 persons were killed in election-related violence throughout the country in September and October. RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From: a. 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. The Minister of Home Affairs for Jammu and Kashmir said that security forces had killed 762 militants in the state as of October. (Kashmir has been at the center of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan since the two nations gained their independence in 1947; both claim Kashmir.) Kashmiri separatist groups maintain that many such "encounters" are faked and that suspected militants offering no resistance are summarily executed. Statements by senior police and army officials confirm that the security forces are under instructions to kill foreign militants rather than attempt to capture them alive. Human rights groups allege that this is particularly true in the case of security force encounters with non-Kashmiri militants who cross into Jammu and Kashmir illegally. Although credible evidence to corroborate cases and quantify trends is lacking, most observers believe that the number of killings attributed to regular Indian forces showed no decrease from the previous year. According to press reports and anecdotal accounts, those persons killed typically were detained by security forces, and their bodies, bearing multiple bullet wounds and often marks of torture, were returned to relatives or were otherwise discovered the same day or a few days later. For example, on May 15 a patrol of the Rashtriya Rifles (a regular army unit specially trained to and assigned to counterinsurgency duty) took two brothers, Abdul Qayoom and Nazir Ahmed into custody in Handwara, Jammu and Kashmir. A few days later, the bodies of the two men were returned to family members, who were told that they were killed while trying to escape. NGO's active in Jammu and Kashmir reported that on April 1, Fayaz Ahmed Bhatt of Anantnag was killed following his arrest by security forces and that his body was returned to family members by police in Nishat. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a government-appointed and financed investigative body (see Section 4), directed that all deaths in encounters immediately be investigated by an independent agency, but members of the security forces rarely are held accountable for these killings. The NHRC itself may inquire into alleged human rights abuses by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, but does not have the statutory power to investigate such allegations if it is not satisfied with the responses to its inquiries. Authorities generally have not reported encounter deaths that occur in Jammu and Kashmir to the NHRC. Human rights groups alleged that security forces summarily executed a number of captured non-Kashmiri militants in Jammu and Kashmir. During conflicts with armed militants, security forces allegedly respond indiscriminately to a burst of gunfire. Soldiers also killed civilians during military counterinsurgency operations. For example, on August 4, 1998, suspected government-sponsored counter-militants entered Saalan village, Poonch district, and summarily executed 19 relatives of a suspected Harkat-ul-Ansar militant, including 14 children and 2 women. During the year, portions of the Jammu and Kashmir human rights commission report on this incident became public; the commission held the army and government-supported militants responsible. Human rights activists in Jammu and Kashmir alleged that members of the Rashtriya Rifles shot and killed Hajra Begum in Fatehpora village, near Baramullah town. Reportedly, the soldiers went to Begum's home late at night and attempted to rape one of Begum's daughters. When Begum resisted, the soldiers shot and killed her and wounded her brother, Bashir Ahmad Rather. According to an army spokesman, in Jammu and Kashmir security forces killed 10,727 militants during the 1990's. In November Jammu and Kashmir governor Girish Chander Saxena said that from 1989-99 militants killed 8,000 civilians and 2,000 security force members, and that another 2,600 civilians died in crossfire between security forces and militant groups. Government figures reveal that 867 civilians, 232 members of the security forces, and 999 militants were killed in Jammu and Kashmir in 1998. According to the Government, in 1998 632 civilians, 126 security forces members, and 270 militants were killed in the northeastern states, and the Government reported 811 total killings in the northeast during the year. Impunity has been and remains a serious problem in Jammu and Kashmir. Security forces have committed thousands of serious human rights violations over the course of the conflict, including extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and torture. Despite this record of abuse, between January 1990 and September 1998, only 295 members of the security forces were prosecuted and punished for any of these crimes, and no compensation was paid to the victims or their families, according to the Union Home Ministry. During the same period, 113 members of the security forces were punished for human rights abuses in the northeastern states. Punishments ranged from reduction in rank to imprisonment for up to 10 years. According to the NHRC's most recent report, released in 1998, 259 complaints of alleged human rights violations by the Border Security Force were registered between January 1990 and March 1997. During the same period, only 31 investigations into allegations of human rights abuses by members of the army were completed, resulting in the conviction and sentencing of 81 armed forces personnel, including 29 officers. In the past, scrutiny by the NHRC and international human rights organizations, when permitted, and the persistence of individual magistrates resulted in somewhat greater accountability for abuses committed by members of the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir; however, in July 1998, the Government rejected the NHRC's recommendations to bring the army and paramilitary forces under closer scrutiny by allowing the NHRC to investigate complaints of their excesses. According to a credible Kashmir-based NGO, the killing of civilians by security forces increased during the year but did not reach the levels of the mid-1990's. The majority of complaints were about individual cases; there were no reports of entire villages being burned by armed forces or of mass killings. The NHRC continues to receive complaints alleging human rights violations by the security forces, especially from Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states. The vast majority of violations by security forces continue to go uninvestigated and unpunished. There were many allegations that military and paramilitary forces in the northeast engage in arbitrary detention, abduction, torture, and the extrajudicial execution of militants, as well as rape (see Sections 1.c. and 1.g.). The Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958 and the Disturbed Areas Act of 1976 remained in effect in several states where active secessionist movements exist, namely, in Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, and parts of Tripura. The Disturbed Areas Act gives police extraordinary powers of arrest and detention, which according to human rights groups allow security forces to operate with virtual impunity in areas under the act. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958 provides search and arrest powers without warrants. Human rights monitors allege that, as in Jammu and Kashmir, government reports of deaths during "encounters" between insurgent groups and security forces in northeastern states actually are staged, and that those insurgents who were reported dead were killed after being detained by security forces. More than 25 encounters occurred between security forces and militant groups during the first 7 months of the year, leaving 34 militants and 48 members of the security forces dead in the northeastern states, according to a compilation of newspaper accounts. For example, in a shootout on February 23 in Jankhang, Nagaon district, army Major Murli Gangadhar and "Pratap," the area commander of the Kabri National Volunteers militant group were shot and killed. In Guwahati district, police shot and killed a National Democratic Front of Bodoland leader at Bhetapara on March 3. On May 17, the army shot and killed a United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) leader in Darrang district. On August 5, police killed a ULFA militant, Babul Ingty, alias Putul Teron, who was wanted in connection with more than 25 cases of murder, kidnaping, and extortion. In Tripura during the first 8 months of the year, there were at least 9 encounters between security forces and various militant groups resulting in the deaths of 55 militants and 24 members of the security forces, according to a compilation of newspaper articles. On March 3, the army killed five militants in Chandel district. On March 28, the security forces killed an ULFA militant in Tinsukia district. In Manipur security forces shot a Manipur People's Army (MPA) militant and injured two persons in an encounter near the Manipur-Assam border. On April 12, five suspected People's Liberation Army (PLA) terrorists were killed in an encounter with the army in Bishenpur district. In a positive development, in July the Supreme Court directed the central Government to explain why it had not acceded to the request of the NHRC to release records pertaining to the October 1993 killing of some 60 civilians by security forces in Bijbehara town, Anantnag district; however, the Government did not respond. Since 1980 clashes between police and Naxalite Maoist revolutionaries of the Peoples' War Group (PWG) have occurred in northwestern Andhra Pradesh. Over the past few years, hundreds of policemen and suspected Naxalites have been killed, according to press reports and human rights organizations. According to local human rights groups, 135 persons were killed in police "encounters" in the first 6 months of the year. Nineteen years of guerrilla-style conflict have led to serious human rights abuses by both sides. Human rights groups allege that "encounters" often are faked by the police to cover up the torture and subsequent murder of Naxalite suspects, sympathizers, or informers. For example, in May police took into custody three leaders of a radical students union who were suspected of having links with the PWG. According to human rights groups, the police tortured and killed two of the students, abandoning their bodies in a forest. The third student later was released, although he too underwent torture (see Section 1.c.). In another incident cited by human rights groups, police arrested, tortured, then killed four of six farmers in a village in Adilabad district in April (see Section 1.c.). Their bodies were found in a forest 150 miles away from the village, and the incident was reported as an "encounter death." After the villagers protested, the police produced the other two farmers in court as "suspected extremists." The PWG alleged that police killed three of their members, Adi Reddy, Santosh Reddy, and Seelam Naresh, in a "faked encounter" in Koyyuru forest, Karnataka, on December 2, and that another PWG member helped frame them. As further evidence that "encounters" often are faked by police, human rights groups also cite the refusal of police officials to hand over the corpses of suspects killed in "encounters," which often are cremated before families can view the bodies. Villagers in PWG-dominated areas complain of regular harassment and arbitrary detention by police. Police officials rarely if ever are held accountable for human rights abuses. In 1998 the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, a local NGO, documented more than 100 encounter killings by police in which no perpetrators were prosecuted. The NHRC is investigating some 285 reported cases of so-called "fake encounter deaths" allegedly committed by the Andhra police in connection with anti-Naxalite operations. In its 1996-97 report, the NHRC stated that the evidence on record did not reveal that any prior attempt was made by the police to arrest the deceased persons. The report observed that in none of these encounters did police personnel receive any injury, while one or more persons from the other side died. The Commission further observed that "no attempt whatsoever" was made to ascertain the identity of the police officers who fired the weapons that caused the deaths and that no attempt was made to investigate the circumstances under which the police opened fire. "As this appeared to be the pattern of the procedure followed by the police," the report concluded, "the Commission felt it necessary to conclude that the procedure followed by them was opposed to law." According to the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, the NHRC has evidence of police culpability in several cases of "encounter deaths" involving suspected Naxalites. However, such cases have not been adjudicated in the courts or have otherwise not been acted on by the state government. For example, of six cases referred by the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee to the NHRC in 1994, evidence of police culpability was found in five. The NHRC directed the state government to investigate the cases; however, action apparently never was taken by the state. The state government's failure to act expeditiously in these cases has discouraged l The Disturbed Areas Act has been in force in a number of districts in Andhra Pradesh for over 2 years. Human rights groups allege that security forces have been able to operate with virtual impunity in parts of Andhra Pradesh under the act. They further allege that Andhra Pradesh police officers train and provide weapons to an armed vigilante group known as the "Green Tigers," whose mission is to combat Naxalite groups in the state. Little is known about the size, composition, or activities of this group. Police also used excessive force indiscriminately against demonstrators, killing many citizens. For example, in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu 17 persons drowned in a river in July when thousands of demonstrators ran to escape a police beating. The demonstrators were demanding government intervention in a labor dispute at a local coffee estate and the release of 652 estate workers imprisoned after a previous demonstration (see Section 2.b.). The police reportedly began to throw rocks at demonstrators, beat them with batons, fired weapons in the air, and chased the demonstrators into a nearby river. The police reportedly followed demonstrators into the river and hit some of them with batons. They also allegedly beat persons attempting to rescue drowning demonstrators. Leaders of the demonstration alleged that the autopsies of the victims were flawed, but the state government rejected their demand for a second post mortem. The state has ordered an investigation into the incident to be conducted by a retired Supreme Court judge. By year's end, no progress had been made. On July 17, police killed two persons at Chhapra and one at Darbhanga in Bihar after a scheduled entrance exam for the army was postponed, resulting in a riot. More than 30 persons, including a senior army officer and a police subinspector, were injured. In February in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, the Border Security Force shot and killed two villagers and injured another when a group of villagers tried to smuggle cattle into Bangladesh. Throughout the country, numerous accused criminals continue to be killed in encounters with police. For example, the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in Bihar alleged that police shot and killed Lallu Singh and Bharat Singh, two unarmed men who had surrendered to them at Dadpur, Dhagwanpur district, on June 22, 1998. Police contend that the two persons were planning to commit a "serious crime," and that they were armed and resisting arrest. However, witnesses to the killings told the PUCL that the two had surrendered, offered no resistance, and were shot at point-blank range. According to the Government, 462 civilians and 106 police officers died in exchanges of gunfire involving police in 1997. In January the NHRC directed the government of Uttar Pradesh to pay an interim compensation of $11,500 (500,250 rupees) each to the families of three young men killed due to indiscriminate firing by police on the Banaras Hindu University campus. Two of the victims were students and the third a former student when the shootings occurred in February 1997. Security forces also held persons in incommunicado detention; on occasion, as in the 1996 case of human rights monitor Jalil Andrabi, such missing persons later were found dead (see Sections 1.b. and 4). As of December 1997, 55 cases of disappearance and custodial death still were pending against Border Security Force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir (see Sections 1.b. and 1.c.). While extrajudicial killings continued in areas buffeted by separatist insurgencies, the press and judiciary also continued to give attention to deaths in police custody. According to the Government, 817 persons died in prisons between January 1 and September 30, 1998, many from natural causes, in some cases aggravated by poor prison conditions (see Section 1.c.). Human rights groups allege that many deaths in prisons are due to torture. The NHRC has focused on torture and deaths in custody by directing district magistrates to report all deaths in police and judicial custody and stating that failure to do so would be interpreted as an attempted coverup. Magistrates appear to be complying with this directive. However, the NHRC has no authority to investigate directly abuses by the security forces, and security forces therefore are not required to--and do not--report custodial deaths in Jammu and Kashmir or the northeast. In 1998 the NHRC ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) (the central government agency charged with investigation of serious crimes), to investigate the torture death of Delhi leather merchant Hari Shankar Pal, who was arrested along with five other persons and beaten by Hauz Kazi police on December 8, 1997. After 2 days of abuse, police took Pal to the city's Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. The results of the May 1998 CBI investigation were not made public; the station house officer of the Hauz Kazi police station was transferred to another duty. In September the NHRC directed the government of Punjab to pay compensation to the family of Mela Singh, Mansa district, Punjab, who died in the Lehragaga police station on December 2, 1994. In a complaint to the NHRC, the victim's wife alleged that the police had detained her husband illegally for 4 days and that he died in police custody due to torture. According to credible NGO's, on August 16, police allegedly tortured Lakhbir Singh Lakha to death in police custody at a police post in Chohla Sahib in Tarn Taran district, Punjab. On September 18, Devinder Singh, a young Sikh, died in police custody at the Ropar police station in Punjab. Devinder Singh was arrested with his two brothers; all three persons allegedly were tortured (see Section 1.c.). As of year's end, no one had been held accountable. On June 2, the NHRC demanded a response from Delhi police to a complaint that it received alleging that Raziuddin died April 30 of torture injuries inflicted in Tihar jail following his arrest by the crime branch of the Delhi police. The NHRC also received a complaint alleging that police in Jehanabad village, near Pilibit, Uttar Pradesh, beat to death 20-year-old Dilshad on May 23, hours after arresting him. An autopsy was conducted, but instead of returning the body to family members, the complaint alleged that police had the body cremated on May 24, without the consent of the family. In Haryana six police officers were suspended and charged with culpable homicide and wrongful confinement in connection with the death in custody on August 15 of Mohinder Singh, a 45-year-old employee of the Haryana state electricity board. Alipur police arrested Singh the same day. His body was brought to nearby Hindu Rao hospital a few hours later, allegedly bearing marks of torture. In Gujarat the NHRC demanded information from authorities regarding the June 25 death of Ganga Nepali, an inmate of Sabarmati jail. According to the report of a three-member committee established by the West Bengal government's prisons department, there were 46 custodial deaths in the state in 1995-96, 44 in 1996-97, and 66 in 1997-98. On March 19, for example, the charred body of Pappu Ahmed was found in the Howrah jail toilet. Jail authorities claim that Ahmed was a drug addict and had committed suicide. The West Bengal Human Rights Commission ordered an investigation, questioning how he got matches and kerosene, and the suicide motive. In May Jagadeesan, a 14-year-old student who was arrested for causing damage to public property in Sivaganga district, Tamil Nadu, died from torture injuries inflicted by police. The Tamil Nadu government ordered an investigation, and the policemen involved were suspended from active duty. An army major was arrested in 1998 for the 1996 killing of human rights monitor Jalil Andrabi. The case still was being heard at year's end, but human rights workers alleged that the central Government and Jammu and Kashmir state both were attempting to subvert the judicial process by withholding evidence. There were no developments in the 1996 killing of human rights monitor Parag Das, who allegedly was killed by a militant who previously had surrendered and was supported by the Government (see Section 4.). Killings and abductions of suspected militants and other persons by progovernment countermilitants continued as a significant pattern in Jammu and Kashmir. Countermilitants are former separatist militants who surrendered to government forces but have retained their arms and paramilitary organization. Government agencies fund, exchange intelligence with, and direct operations of countermilitants as part of the counterinsurgency effort. Countermilitants are known to search persons at roadblocks (see Section 2.d.) and guard extensive areas of the Kashmir valley from attacks by militants. The Government, through its sponsoring and condoning of extrajudicial countermilitant activities is responsible for killings, abductions, and other abuses committed by these militant groups. Perhaps as many as 3,000 individuals continue to operate in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in the countryside, outside major towns. The Hizbul Mujahideen, a Kashmiri militant group, told the press in June 1998 that progovernment countermilitants had killed 350 of its members. According to the Lashkar-I-Toiba, another militant group, security forces killed 21 members during the year in Jammu and Kashmir; however, this number has not been confirmed, and comes from one of only many groups in the state. Precise numbers are unavailable. The Government recruited countermilitants into the Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir police and into the Border Security Force (BSF). Militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir increasingly targeted members of the security forces and civilians during the year. On April 29, five militants forcibly entered the home of Ahad Ganai, in Kreshipora, Kupwara district, rounded up the residents, and shot them with automatic weapons, killing eight family members, including children. On July 13, militants attacked a BSF residential compound in Baramulla district, killing three BSF troops; two militants also died in the exchange. On August 10, militants attacked a BSF position in Rajouri district, killing one BSF soldier and injuring two others. On August 11, militants killed three BSF soldiers and injured three others in Rajouri district. Militants also carried out attacks on security forces and civilians that killed numerous persons (see Section 1.g.). The police, BSF, and army each reported that during the year they had the highest number of causalities of any year during the past decade of militancy. The BSF reported that during the year militants killed over 35 persons, including 5 officers. The police forces reported that, as of September, 61 policemen had been killed. Army statistics indicated that during the year over 200 soldiers were killed in counter-insurgency violence in Jammu and Kashmir. The year's total number of security force deaths (over 300 according to the Home Minister) indicates a nearly 50 percent increase above prior years. During the period of increased militant attacks against the security forces, there was a parallel decline in massacres of unarmed civilians in Jammu and Kashmir; however, incidents of mass killings of civilians still occurred. Between May and July, Muslim militants carried out four mass killings of Hindu villagers in Jammu and Kashmir. On July 20, approximately 20 militants entered two houses in the Doda district of Jammu region, and opened fire with automatic weapons, killing over 15 Hindu persons, including 3 women and 7 children; one woman was 75 years old. The militants, identified by a survivor as belonging to Hizbul-Mujahideen, specifically were targeting five men in the houses who were members of their local village defense committee (VDC). In 1998 the state police created dozens of VDC's throughout Jammu as a means of arming Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) against attacks by Muslim militants (see Section 5). Insurgency and increased ethnic violence took a heavy toll in the northeast. Extensive, complex patterns of violence continued in many of the seven northeastern states. The main insurgent groups in the northeast include two factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in Nagaland; Meitei extremists in Manipur; the ULFA and the Bodo security force in Assam; and the ATTF and the NLFT in Tripura. The proclaimed objective of many of these groups is to secede from of the country, creating new, independent nations. Their stated grievances against the Government range from charges of neglect and indifference to the endemic poverty of the region, to allegations of active discrimination against the tribal and nontribal people of the region by the central Government (see Section 5). The oldest of these conflicts, involving the Nagas, dates back to the country's independence in 1947. On August 1, 1997, a cease-fire between the Government and the Isak-Muivah faction of the NSCN (NCSN-IM) entered into effect and largely has been observed by the Government and all insurgent groups in the state. During the latter part of the year, the cease-fire was extended through July 31, 2000. In May underground Naga leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, chairman and general secretary respectively of the NSCM-IM, visited Nagaland for the first time in 33 years. The Government asked the NSCM-IM to define the geographical boundary of "Nagalim" to enable it to extend the cease-fire zone to these areas. On August 18, the NSCM-IM killed Dally Mungro, general secretary of the Khaplang faction of the NSCN, along with two of his associates. The Kuki and Paite ethnic tribes also entered into a cease-fire in March 1998, which was signed in the presence of Manipur's chief minister. Both sides observed the cease-fire, and in October 1998 a peace accord between them was signed. In 1997 violence between the Kuki and Paite communities led to hundreds of deaths and the burning of many homes. Elsewhere in the northeast, the upsurge in Bodo-Santhal ethnic clashes, which began in April 1998, continued throughout the year. More than 260,000 persons live under poor conditions in relief camps in Assam's Kokrajhar, Gosaigaon, and adjoining districts as a result of the ongoing violence between Bodos and Santhals. The killings of ULFA leaders' family members during the year renewed concerns about the situation in Assam. There also were encounters between security forces and the NSCN-Khaplang faction throughout the year. In Tripura kidnapings committed by militant groups operating in the state continued to be a problem. For example on March 19 a Communist Party (Marxist) leader was kidnaped and killed by the National Liberation Front of Tripura militants. Even after ransom is paid for captives, many are killed. According to a compilation of newspaper accounts compiled during the first 8 months of the year, more than 193 persons were killed in insurgency-related violence in Assam; 184 in Tripura; 88 in Manipur; 7 in Mizoram; 5 in Nagaland; and 4 in Meghalaya. On March 7, ULFA militants shot and killed a local Congress Party leader in Assam. On March 26, ULFA militants killed the Assam state agriculture minister's brother and injured the health minister's brother. On March 29, ULFA militants shot and killed the nephew of the public health engineering minister in north Lakhimpur district. On the same day, an armed group of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist Liberation) members shot and killed three members of a rival faction in retaliation for the earlier murder of some of their members. On May 19, in south Tripura district, NLFT insurgents hacked to death Halendra Tripura, a tribal Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) leader, and his brother-in-law, Ananda Mohan Roaja, a senior tribal leader and a member of the Tripura state legislative assembly. On June 17, suspected monitors of the Congress and the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity killed CPM member Sukhlal Debnath in Mohanpur, Sadar subdivision. On July 14, suspected NLFT militants killed Amar Pal, a CPM leader, and abducted his nephew in Dhanlekha village in south Tripura (see Section 1.b.). In August militants belonging to the Isac-Muivah faction of the NSCN-IM and Mizoram's tribal Hmar People's Conference (HPC) killed at least one person during a spree of abductions (see Section 1.b.). Three militant attacks occurred in November, killing numerous persons; these attacks made use of some unconventional weapons, and in some cases targeted civilians (see Sections 1.g. and 5). The kidnaping of NGO environmental monitor Sanjay Ghosh in 1997 and his death at the hands of his ULFA captors continued to attract wide public criticism. On August 6, 1997, ULFA confirmed that Ghosh died in captivity after being "arrested and tried." ULFA still has not produced Ghosh's body. In June the CBI filed murder charges in connection with the case against ULFA leader Paresh Arua and 10 other ULFA members. Groups representing several ethnic tribal peoples in Assam, including the Santhals, Mundas, Oraons, Gonds, Savars, Bhils, Koyas, Kharias, Lohars, and Parjas, allege that they have been the target of systematic violence at the hands of the National Democratic Front for Bodoland. In Assam surrendered members of the ULFA (Sulfa's) were labeled as traitors and targeted for murder by ULFA members. On March 6, ULFA members fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Guwahati apartment building housing several Sulfa's; there were minor injuries. In retaliation for this and other attacks, the relatives of ULFA members allegedly have been targeted. For example, on March 6, just hours after the apartment building rocketing, unidentified gunmen attacked three houses in Guwahati belonging to the relatives of ULFA members, killing six persons and injuring a 50-year-old woman. Naxalite Maoist revolutionaries of the PWG killed dozens of persons, declaring them "class enemies" or police informers. On March 3, a group of about 60 armed Naxalites entered Bhimpura village, Bihar, forcibly entered 25 homes, and murdered 5 persons, including 3 members of a family. In areas under their control, Naxalites dispense summary justice in "People's Courts," which in some cases condemn to death suspected police informers, village headmen, and others deemed to be "class enemies" or "caste oppressors" (landlords); the Naxalites also extort money from these groups, as well as businesses. On February 10, the Naxalite PWG killed seven lower caste villagers in Bihar (see Section 5). On September 4, Naxalite members shot and killed the superintendent of police in Hyderabad. On September 15, 10 to 15 Naxalite insurgents in Sirpur, Andhra Pradesh shot and killed Paliwai Purushottam Rao, a member of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly, as well as 3 bodyguards. On December 15, Naxalite extremists belonging to the PWG hacked to death Madhya Pradesh state minister Likhiram Kaware, a three-term Congress Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), as he slept at his ancestral home in Sonepuri. According to media reports, the PWG left a note at the murder scene stating that the killing was in retaliation for police action against group members carried out in Andhra Pradesh on December 1, in which four extremists were killed. This is the first known instance in which PWG extremists targeted a high-level government official. The PWG also use land mines to kill police (see Section 1.g.), and insurgents use bombs to kill government officials, police, and civilians. Naxalite violence has plagued Andhra Pradesh since the early 1980's, and has claimed more than 500 civilian and police victims since 1996 alone. In November 1997, an independent commission of inquiry established by Parliament in 1991 to investigate the May 21, 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi tabled an interim report of its findings in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament). The report pointed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as clearly responsible for the assassination but was inconclusive on the question of whether the LTTE had received assistance in carrying out the murder. It criticized the then-government for an alleged failure to provide comprehensive security for the former Prime Minister. On January 28, 1998, a designated lower court in Chennai sentenced to death all 26 persons accused in the assassination. The CBI originally charged 41 persons in the case; 12 since have died, and 3 have evaded capture (including LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakharan). Many of those sentenced, who include both Indian and Sri Lankan nationals, allegedly played a peripheral role in the assassination plot, but the court upheld the CBI contention that all of them were aware that they were conspiring in a common cause. Having heard an appeal of the convictions, the Supreme Court on May 11 acquitted 19 of the 26 accused persons and upheld the convictions of 7 persons (see Section 1.d.). It sustained the death sentence in the case of four of the convicted persons and changed the sentence of three others to life imprisonment. The incursion of Pakistan-backed armed forces into territory on the Indian side of the line of control around Kargil and the Indian military campaign to repel the intrusion resulted in a large number of casualties on both sides, including civilians (see Section 1.g.). Nearly 100 persons were killed in election-related violence throughout the country in September and October (see Sections 1.g. and 4). Religiously and ethnically motivated violence led to large numbers of deaths (see Section 5). Mob lynchings of tribal people occur in many states (see Section 5). In April security officials reported that 6 Bangladeshis and three Indians were killed and that over 60 persons were wounded in a border exchange of mortar rounds and gunfire along the West Bengal-Bangladesh border. There are about one or two such incidents reported annually. b. Disappearance According to human rights groups, unacknowledged, incommunicado detention of suspected militants continued in Jammu and Kashmir; however, the Government has not released any recent figures. The Jammu and Kashmir police acknowledged that 1,228 suspected militants were arrested during 1998 and that an additional 187 surrendered. Of this number, 529 persons were released after preliminary questioning, 457 persons were charged under special security laws, and the remaining persons were released at a later stage of judicial review. In addition the Jammu and Kashmir police stated that in 1998 it held 514 persons under the Public Safety Act (PSA). The Jammu and Kashmir Minister of Home Affairs said that 552 militants were arrested and 62 persons surrendered during the first 9 months of the year. According to an Amnesty International report that was released during the year, there are over 800 unsolved disappearances in Kashmir since 1990. The Government was unable to provide complete statistics for the number of persons held under special security laws in the northeast, but acknowledged that 43 persons were in detention under the National Security Act as of December 31, 1998. Although the Government allowed the Terrorist and Disruptive Practices (Prevention) Act (TADA) to lapse in 1995, one credible human rights organization stated that more than 1,000 persons remained in detention awaiting prosecution under the law. Several thousand others are held in short-term confinement in transit and interrogation centers. Human rights groups maintain that several hundred more persons are held by the military and paramilitary forces in long-term unacknowledged detention in interrogation centers and transit camps in Jammu and Kashmir and in the northeast that nominally are intended for only short-term confinement. Human rights groups fear that many of these unacknowledged prisoners are subject to torture and extrajudicial killing (see Sections 1.a. and 1.c.). According to one credible NGO, there were 1,300 writs of habeas corpus pending in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court at midyear. In March Amnesty International reported that the fates of between 700 and 800 persons reported missing in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990 remain unexplained by authorities. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture reported in 1997 that more than 15,000 habeas corpus petitions have been filed in India since 1990, "but that in the vast majority of these cases the authorities had not responded to the petitions." During the year, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights transmitted 33 newly reported cases of disappearance to the Government, 14 of which reportedly occurred in 1998. The Government submitted information on eight cases of disappearance to the Working Group during the year. In one prominent case in Jammu and Kashmir, the Government responded to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions in 1997 and stated that human rights monitor Jalil Andrabi was not arrested by security forces, as alleged by human rights groups, but that he was abducted by "unidentified armed persons." Andrabi was last seen alive in the presence of countermilitants and members of the security forces on March 8, 1996, in Srinagar. Despite the Government's statement, the army in February 1996 identified to a Srinagar court a major with a temporary commission as the individual primarily responsible for Andrabi's death. Allegedly security forces dumped Andrabi's body into the Jhelum River. His case also is the subject of an inquiry by the NHRC. In 1998 an army major was arrested for the killing of Andrabi. There was no progress in the case by year's end (see Sections 1.a. and 4). In April 1998, the Government stated that it would investigate the fate of eight persons who reportedly disappeared in Jammu and Kashmir during 1997: Fayaz Ahmad Beigh, Fayaz Ahmad Khan, Abdula Rashid Wahid, Mohammed Ashraf Dar, Mohammed Afzal Shah, Nisar Ahmad Wani, Manzoor Ahmad Dar, and Bilal Ahmad Sheikh. By September 1998, the Government could account for only one of the eight, claiming that Fayaz Ahmad Beigh escaped police custody on September 9, 1997, and was believed to have crossed the line of control into Pakistan. By year's end, no new information was available. As of December 1997, 55 cases of disappearance and custodial death still were pending against Border Security Force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir (see Sections 1.a. and 1.c.). The Government maintains that screening committees administered by the state governments provide information about detainees to their families. However, other sources indicate that families are able to confirm the detention of their relatives only by bribing prison guards. For example witnesses report that uniformed security forces arrested Muhammad Ashraf Mir, Bilal Ahmad Mir, Munir Ahmad Mir, and Gulzar Ahmad Wani on Residency Road, Kashmir valley, on May 4 and took them to an unknown location. Authorities did not provide any information about the arrests, despite repeated requests from family members. A program of prison visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which began in October 1995, is designed in part to help assure communications between detainees and their families. During the year, the ICRC visited approximately 1,000 detainees in 20 places of detention. All acknowledged detention centers in Jammu and Kashmir and Kashmiri detainees elsewhere in the country were visited. However, the ICRC is not authorized to visit interrogation centers or transit centers, nor does it have access to regular detention centers in the northeast (see Sections 1.c. and 4). In Punjab the pattern of disappearances prevalent in the early 1990's appears to be at an end. Hundreds of police and security officials were not held accountable for serious human rights abuses committed during the counterinsurgency of 1984-94. However, steps were taken against a few such violators. The CBI claims to be pursuing actively charges against dozens of police officials implicated in the "mass cremations" case. Police in the Tarn Taran district secretly disposed of bodies of suspected militants believed to have been abducted and extrajudicially executed, cremating them without the knowledge or consent of their families. The CBI, in its report to the Supreme Court in December 1996, stated that Punjab police secretly had cremated over 2,000 bodies in Tarn Taran; of these, 585 bodies had been identified fully, 274 had been identified partially, and 1,238 were unidentified. Most reportedly were killed by border security forces while trying to enter the country from Pakistan, were unidentified victims of accidents or suicide, or died in clashes between militant factions. However, 424 persons were apparently militants killed in the interior of the district, 291 of whom subsequently were identified. These numbers demonstrate the extent of the bloodshed during those years and, given the pattern of police abuses prevalent during the period, credibly include many killed in extrajudicial executions. The NHRC is seeking to obtain compensation for the families of those victims whose remains were identified, but the Government has challenged the NHRC's jurisdiction in the cases. In September 1998, the Supreme Court upheld the right of the NHRC to investigate the cases. In August 1998, the Committee for the Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP) member and former Supreme Court Justice Kuldip Singh presented the chief minister of Punjab with a list of approximately 3,000 persons who either were missing or had died in encounters with security forces during the period of unrest in Punjab. Former justice Singh also announced that the CCDP would form a three-member commission to investigate the mass cremations. The Commission received little cooperation from state government authorities and made little progress during the year (see Section 4). In August Amnesty International called on the Government to explain the disappearances and prosecute those responsible. It expressed concern that police in Punjab might be obstructing the judicial inquiry into the death of human rights monitor Jaswant Singh Khalra. Khalra was investigating the cremation of unidentified bodies by Tarn Taran police. Several witnesses observed Punjab police officials arrest Khalra outside his Amritsar home on September 6, 1995. Police officials subsequently denied that they had arrested Khalra, and he has not been seen since. On July 30, 1996, following its investigation, the CBI identified nine Punjab police officials as responsible for Khalra's abduction and recommended their prosecution. One of the suspects subsequently died, reportedly by suicide; none of the others were charged by year's end. In July 1998, Punjab police arrested Jaspal Singh Dhillon, another member of the CCDP who was active in the Tarn Taran investigation, on suspicion of conspiring to free several convicted Sikh separatists from a Chandigarh jail. He was released on bail on May 27. These events prompted extended public debate over the accountability of Punjab police for excesses while suppressing a violent insurgency. According to human rights monitors in Punjab, approximately 100 police officials were either facing charges, were prosecuted, or were under investigation for human rights abuses at year's end. Early in the year, the Punjab High Court, acting on a petition by the Punjab police, ordered the suspension of public hearings conducted by the People's Commission of Enquiry; at year's end, they had not resumed. There are credible reports that police throughout the country often do not file required arrest reports. As a result, there are hundreds of unsolved disappearances in which relatives claim that an individual was taken into police custody and never heard from again. Police usually deny these claims, countering that there are no records of arrest. In Manipur 14-year-old Yumlembam Sanamacha of Thoubal district has been missing since his arrest by soldiers on February 12, 1998. The army reportedly detained him because of his alleged links with insurgent groups. The All-Manipur Students' Union petitioned the Guwahati High Court for Sanamacha's release. The Court ordered the army to produce the boy, but it failed to do so and his whereabouts remain unknown. On May 5, police in Siliguri, West Bengal, arrested 14-year-old Pinter Yadav and his 9-year-old cousin. According to local human rights monitors, the boys were beaten, and when Pinter began to vomit blood he was taken to a local police station. He has not been seen since, and efforts by family members to petition police for information were unsuccessful. Militants in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast continued to use kidnapings to sow terror, seek the release of detained comrades, and extort funds. Sometimes kidnaped persons later were killed (see Sections 1.a. and 1.g.). According to government figures, there were 634 kidnapings in the northeast during the year. There were no new developments in the case of the 1995 kidnapings of American, British, German, and Norwegian nationals, despite police cooperation with foreign diplomats. On July 14, suspected NLFT militants killed Amar Pal, a CPM leader, and abducted his nephew in Dhanlekha village in south Tripura (see Section 1.a.). On July 31, a Jalpaiguri tea garden owner was kidnaped in Assam. On August 3, a group of eight rebels reportedly belonging to the Isac-Muivah faction of NSCN-IM and Mizoram's tribal Hmar People's Conference (HPC) kidnaped Goutam Roy and Hitesh Puri, both senior tea executives. On August 4, a gang of five militants, suspected of being members of NSCN-IM and the Assam-based Muslim United Liberation Tigers (MULT), kidnaped Debojyoti Sharma, another tea executive and demanded ransom, to fund their activities. The kidnap victims later were released. In August militants belonging to the Isac-Muivah faction of the NSCN-IM and Mizoram's tribal Hmar People's Conference (HPC) killed at least one person during a spree of abductions (see Section 1.a.). c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment The law prohibits torture, and confessions extracted by force are generally inadmissible in court; however, 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. In 1997 the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture reported that the security forces systematically practice torture against persons in Jammu and Kashmir in order to coerce them to confess to militant activity, to reveal information about suspected militants, or to inflict punishment for suspected support or sympathy with militants. Information is not made public regarding instances of action taken against security force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir for acts of torture. On April 14, 1996, Mohammad Iqbal was arrested by soldiers of the Rashtriya Rifles and taken to Chhatru Camp, near Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir. His body, bearing marks of torture, was discovered in the nearby Chhatru river soon thereafter; no one has been charged in the case. According to local human rights organizations, on November 3, 1995, Banihal police station officers arrested Ayaz Ahmad Wani of Bankoot village, Banihal, and tortured him there and in the jail at Ramban for 5 days. On November 8, 1995, police brought the youth to a hospital in Ramban with marks indicating torture on his arms, hands, face, and genitals. He was transferred to the government medical college in Jammu, where he died of his injuries on November 9, 1995. An autopsy revealed that he had suffered injuries to his kidneys, heart, and stomach and that his wrists and feet were broken. The father of the victim filed a complaint with the NHRC, and on July 18, 1998, the case was referred to police for investigation. There was no further progress in the case by year's end. Human rights monitors maintain that there is a similar pattern of abuse by security forces in the northeast. Police atrocities against indigenous people include torture (see Section 5). The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture noted in 1997 that methods of torture included beating, rape, crushing the leg muscles with a wooden roller, burning with heated objects, and electric shocks. Because many alleged torture victims die in custody, and others are afraid to speak out, there are few firsthand accounts, although marks of torture often have been found on the bodies of deceased detainees. The U.N. Special Rapporteurs on Torture and on Extrajudicial Killings renewed their requests to visit during the year, but the Government did not permit them to do so (see Section 4). The prevalence of torture by police in detention facilities throughout the country is borne out by the number of cases of deaths in police custody (see Section 1.a.). Delhi's Tihar jail is notorious for the mistreatment of prisoners, with 1 of every 11 custodial deaths occurring there. Police and jailers typically assault new prisoners for money and personal articles. In addition police commonly torture detainees during custodial interrogation. Although police officers are subject to prosecution for such offenses under Section 302 of the Penal Code, the Government often fails to hold them accountable. Two kidnaping suspects allege that police tortured them while in detention in a Calcutta prison in November; the Home Minister denied that the boys were subjected to anything other than routine interrogation. The family of one of them asked the NHRC to investigate the allegation; at year's end, it still was under investigation. According to human rights groups, in May the Andhra Pradesh police tortured three students who were suspected of having links with the PWG; two persons died (see Section 1.a.). In another incident, police tortured six farmers in a village in Adilabad district in April (see Section 1.a.). According to human rights NGO's, on September 18, police beat Devinder Singh, Sapinder Singh, and Karnail Singh, three Sikh brothers, in a police courtyard in Punjab, apparently to extort a confession from them that they possessed an assault rifle. Allegedly, their legs were pulled open to 180 degrees, gasoline was applied to their genitals, and they were beaten badly. Devinder Singh allegedly died as result of his injuries (see Section 1.a.). According to press reports, prison officials used prisoners as domestic servants and sold female prisoners to brothels (see Sections 6.c. and 6.f.). The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture stated in 1997 that, in Jammu and Kashmir, torture victims or their relatives reportedly have had difficulty in filing complaints because local police were issued instructions not to open a case without permission from higher authorities. In addition the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act provides that unless approval is obtained from the central Government, no "prosecution, suit, or other legal proceeding shall be instituted...against any person in respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers of the act. This provision reportedly allows the security forces to act with virtual impunity. There also were incidents in which police beat journalists (see Section 2.a.) and demonstrators (see Section 2.b.). Police also committed abuses against tribal people (see Section 5). The rape of persons in custody is part of the broader pattern of custodial abuse. Limits placed on the arrest, search, and police custody of women appear effectively to limit the frequency of rape in custody, although it does occur on occasion. The NHRC received reports of only three cases of custodial rape between April 1, 1996, and March 31, 1997. The 24-hour reporting requirement applies to custodial rape as well as custodial death. However, the requirement does not apply to rape by policemen outside police stations. NGO's claim that rape by police, including custodial rape, is more common than NHRC figures indicate. Although evidence is lacking, a larger number appears credible, in light of other evidence of abusive behavior by police and the likelihood that many rapes go unreported due to a sense of shame and a fear of retribution. In Gujarat a police constable in Vadodara is facing charges in connection with the rape of a woman while in custody. There is a pattern of rape by paramilitary personnel in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast as a means of instilling fear among noncombatants in insurgency-affected areas (see Section 1.g.), but is not included in NHRC statistics because it involves military forces. Human rights monitors allege that army personnel summoned a woman and her four daughters from Mangota village, Doda district, Jammu and Kashmir, to a nearby camp on March 15, where the women were held captive for 4 days and repeatedly raped. The victims filed a complaint with Doda police naming Charanjit Sharma, the officer in charge of the camp, as one of their assailants (see Section 1.g.). In addition to the 888 complaints of custodial death (700 in judicial custody and 188 in police custody) and 3 cases of custodial rape received by the NHRC between April 1, 1996, and March 31, 1997, 1,643 complaints of other police excesses were filed with the NHRC. As a result of NHRC action during this period, criminal prosecutions were brought against 144 police officials and 23 civilians and monetary compensation in amounts ranging from $1,250 (54,375 rupees) to $3,750 (163,125 rupees) were recommended for payment in 55 cases. In its annual report for the period, the NHRC remarked that over half of the more than 20,000 complaints that it received "relate to the conduct of the police." Police corruption undermines efforts to combat trafficking in women and children (see Section 6.f.). During the year Human Rights Watch published a report that asserted that the Maharashtra government was complicit with the Dabhol Power Corporation (a joint venture of the Enron Corporation, General Electric, and Bechtel) in numerous human rights abuses. According to HRW, the Maharashtra government also engaged in a systematic pattern of suppression of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly coupled with arbitrary detentions, excessive use of force, and threats. Religiously motivated violence led to a number of deaths and injuries as well as damage to property (see Section 5). Some militants groups in the northeast use rape as a tactic to terrorize the populace (see Section 5). Prison conditions are poor. Prisons are severely overcrowded, and the provision of food and medical care is frequently inadequate. Prisons operate above capacity, because of thousands of prisoners awaiting hearings. For example, in West Bengal, Sheikh Feku, an alleged thief, was released from jail in mid-June after having been in jail for 3 years awaiting trial. Overcrowding in jails also is severe. Delhi's Tihar jail, with a designed capacity of 3,300 persons, houses 9,000 prisoners. The inspector general of prisons for Karnataka said in June that Mysore jail, designed to hold 350 inmates, holds 850 persons, and that Bangalore jail, built for 700 persons, holds 2,500 inmates. According to the inspector general of prisons, water supply and sanitation systems in both facilities are in disrepair and medical facilities are nonexistent, with the result that prisoners must be taken to government medical institutions for health checks. The states are waiting for a national jail manual to facilitate reform; however, aside from providing financial aid to the states, the central Government has not initiated any standard reforms. The Prison Act of 1894 remains unamended. According to the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center, in the poorest states, such as Bihar, where 265 police stations have no lock-up facilities, the lack of prisons led police to shackle prisoners to trees. An NHRC investigatory team visiting Meerut jail in Uttar Pradesh in 1998 found some 3,000 inmates in a facility designed to hold 650 persons. As a result of this and other jail visits, the NHRC hired a consultant to draft the prison reform bill to be submitted to the Government. The bill, meant to be enacted by the national Parliament, encountered opposition from state governments on the basis that prison management is the responsibility of the states. The 700 deaths in judicial custody in 1998, occurring in a prison population of approximately 155,000, many of whom are held for years, include a large proportion of deaths from natural causes, in some cases aggravated by poor conditions in prisons (see Section 1.a.). Deaths in police custody, which typically occur within hours or days of initial detention, more clearly imply violent abuse. The NHRC has no authority to investigate abuses by security forces directly, and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast are not required to report custodial deaths to the Commission. With the exception of an agreement with the ICRC for visits to detention facilities in Jammu and Kashmir, the Government does not allow NGO's to monitor prison conditions (see Section 4). However, 15 states and union territories have authorized the NHRC to conduct surprise check-ups on jails. Although custodial abuse is deeply rooted in police practices, increased press reporting and parliamentary questioning provide evidence of growing public awareness of the problem. The NHRC has identified torture and deaths in detention as one of its priority concerns. In 1998 it created a "Special Rapporteur and Chief Coordinator of Custodial Justice" to help implement its directive to state prison authorities to ensure that medical check-ups are performed on all inmates. The Commission noted that there is an alarmingly high incidence of tuberculosis among inmates and that, according to one study, this was the cause of 79 percent of deaths in judicial custody. d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile During the early 1980's, the Government implemented a variety of special security laws intended to help law enforcement authorities fight separatist insurgency, and there were credible reports of widespread arbitrary arrest and detention under these laws. Although the law that had been subject to the most extensive abuse, 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, according to the NHRC's most recent report. A small number of arrests under the TADA continued for crimes allegedly committed before the law lapsed. In 1997 the Government asserted that all the TADA cases would be reviewed. However, few persons have been released as a result of the review. Criminal cases are proceeding against most of those still held under the TADA, with more than 3,000 charged under other laws in addition to the TADA. In 1996 the Supreme Court eased bail guidelines for persons accused under TADA, taking into account the large backlog of cases in special TADA courts. On March 23, the state minister for home affairs told the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly that 16,620 persons had been detained under the TADA in the state since 1990; of these, 1,640 were brought to trial, and 10 were convicted. TADA courts use abridged procedures. For example, defense counsel is not permitted to see witnesses for the prosecution, who are kept behind screens while testifying in court. Also, confessions extracted under duress are admissible as evidence. On May 10, the Tamil Nadu government withdrew the "Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act," which attempted to resurrect provisions of the lapsed TADA. Passed by the Tamil Nadu state assembly in May 1998 following a series of terrorist bombings in Coimbatore, the bill was never signed into law. Similar bills are pending in the Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh state assemblies. If enacted they would provide for special courts to try offenses, place the burden of proof at the bail stage on the accused, make confessions to a police officer of the rank of superintendent of police admissible as evidence, extend the period of remand from 15 to 60 days, and set mandatory sentences for terrorism-related offenses. The Constitution provides that detainees have the right to be informed of the grounds for their arrest, to be represented by counsel, and, unless held under a preventive detention law, to appear before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest. At this initial appearance, the accused either must be remanded for further investigation or released. The Supreme Court has upheld these provisions. An accused person must be informed of his right to bail at the time of arrest and may, unless he is held on a nonbailable offense, apply for bail at any time. The police must file charges within 60 to 90 days of arrest; if they fail to do so, court approval of a bail application becomes mandatory. The Constitution permits preventive detention laws in the event of threats to public order and national security. These laws provide for limits on the length of detention and for judicial review. Several laws of this type remain in effect. The National Security Act (NSA) of 1980 permits the detention of persons considered to be security risks; police anywhere in the country (except Jammu and Kashmir) may detain suspects under NSA provisions. Under these provisions the authorities may detain a suspect without charge or trial for as long as a year on loosely defined security grounds. The state government must confirm the detention order, which is reviewed by an advisory board of three High Court judges within 7 weeks of the arrest. NSA detainees are permitted visits by family members and lawyers and must be informed of the grounds for their detention within 5 days (10 to 15 days in exceptional circumstances). According to the Government, 1,163 persons were being held under the NSA at the end of 1997. The NSA does not define "security risk." Human rights groups allege that preventive detention can be ordered and extended under the act purely on the opinion of the detaining authority and after advisory board review. Such a subjective decision cannot be overturned by any court. The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) of 1978 covers corresponding procedures for that state. Over half of the detainees in Jammu and Kashmir are held under the PSA. Jammu and Kashmir police reported that 514 persons were being held under the PSA as of December 31, 1998. In September and November alone, the Jammu and Kashmir police arrested 25 members of the Kashmiri separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). These arrests followed a series of terrorist attacks in the state for which members of this group allegedly were responsible (see Sections 1.a., 1.g., and 4). On October 8, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah told a public audience that because Hurriyat leaders had planted land mines, buried hand grenades, and used violence to sabotage the polls, "We are going to be very harsh and I am sending them to the places where they will see no hope." Hurriyat leaders were sent to Jodhpur jail for 3 years. Although prison officials denied the APHC members legal counsel on October 13, they subsequently granted access on October 27. On November 15, legal counsel filed a writ petition in the Kashmir High Court that challenged the constitutionality and reasonableness of the PSA. The petition also questioned the legality of the decision to shift the APHC leaders out of the state. In late October Governor Girjesh Saxena told a foreign delegation that the state government had sufficient grounds to detain the leaders, but lacked enough evidence to convict them. The NHRC was asked to take action on the case. In December Shabir Shah, president of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, was released. At the time of Shah's release, Amnesty International issued a statement that expressed concern about the 25 arrested leaders of the APHC and explicitly suggested that the charges were politically motivated. On November 27, 1997, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) of 1958. In a representation made to the NHRC, the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center (SAHRDC) asserted that the act's powers were "too vast and sweeping and pose a grave threat to the fundamental rights and liberties of the citizenry of the (disturbed) areas covered by the act." The SAHRDC asserted that the powers granted to authorities under section 3 of the act to declare any area to be a "disturbed area," and thus subject to the other provisions of the act, were too wide. Moreover, the SAHRDC noted that section 4(a) of the act empowers any commissioned officer, warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces to fire upon and otherwise use force, "even to the point of death, if he believes that it is necessary for the maintenance of law and order. Further, section 6 of the act states that "no prosecution, suit or other legal proceedings shall be instituted," except with the previous sanction of the central Government "against any person in respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of powers" conferred by the act. The court system is extremely overloaded, resulting in the detention of numerous persons awaiting trial for periods longer than they would receive if convicted. Prisoners may be held for months or even years before obtaining a trial date. According to a reply to a parliamentary question in July 1994, more than 111,000 criminal cases were pending in the Allahabad High Court, the most serious case backlog in the country, of which nearly 29,000 cases had been pending for 5 to 8 years. A statement to Parliament in July 1996 indicated that criminal and civil cases pending before the country's high courts numbered nearly 2.9 million in 1995, roughly the same as in 1994 but an increase from 2.65 million in 1993. According to the Union Home Ministry, the total number of civil and criminal cases pending for 3 or more years in all courts throughout the country was 5,116,895 on December 31, 1998. In its most recent report, the NHRC reported that nearly 80 percent of all prisoners held between April 1996, and March 1997, were so-called "under-trials," i.e., unconvicted remand prisoners awaiting the start or conclusion of their trials. In March the chairman of the NHRC stated that 60 percent of all police arrests were "unnecessary and unjustifiable," and that the incarceration of those wrongly arrested accounted for 43 percent of the total annual expenditure on prisons. For example, the chairman stated that only 10 to 15 percent of inmates in Delhi's Tihar jail are convicts; the rest are remand prisoners awaiting trial. The NHRC conducted a campaign to release remand prisoners awaiting trial for bailable offenses, but who are unable to afford bail. Through its efforts during the year, 200 such prisoners were released from Delhi's Tihar jail, 100 from jails in Punjab, and 319 from jails in Tamil Nadu. In June 1997, Rongthong Kunley Dorji, a Bhutanese dissident, was placed in judicial custody pending review of an extradition request from the Government of Bhutan on charges that included political offenses as well as financial malfeasance. On June 12, 1998, Dorji was released on bail following the New Delhi High Court's decision to deny a government appeal and let stand a lower court's order to grant bail in the case. Dorji still awaits conclusion of his extradition hearing. The Government does not use forced exile. e. Denial of Fair Public Trial There is an independent judiciary with strong constitutional safeguards. Under a Supreme Court ruling, the Chief Justice, in consultation with his colleagues, has a decisive voice in selecting judicial candidates. The President appoints judges, and they can serve up to the age of 62 on the state high courts and up to the age of 65 on the Supreme Court. Courts of first resort exist at the subdistrict and district levels. More serious cases and appeals are heard in state-level high courts and by the national-level supreme court, which also rules on constitutional questions. State governments appoint subdistrict and district judicial magistrates. High court judges are appointed on the recommendation of the federal law ministry, with the advice of the Supreme Court, the High Court Chief Justice, and the chief minister of the State, usually from among district judges or lawyers practicing before the same courts. Supreme Court judges are appointed similarly from among High Court judges. The Chief Justice is selected on the basis of seniority. When legal procedures function normally, they generally assure a fair trial, but the process is often drawn out and inaccessible to the poor. Defendants have the right to choose counsel from a bar that is fully independent of the government. There are effective channels for appeal at most levels of the judicial system. The Criminal Procedure Code provides for an open trial in most cases, but it allows exceptions in proceedings involving official secrets, trials in which statements prejudicial to the safety of the state might be made, or under provisions of special security legislation. Sentences must be announced in public. Muslim personal status law governs many noncriminal matters involving Muslims--including family law, inheritance, and divorce. The Government does not interfere in the personal status laws of the minority communities, with the result that personal status laws that discriminate against women are upheld. In Jammu and Kashmir, the judicial system barely functions due to threats by militants against judges, witnesses, and their family members; because of judicial tolerance of the Government's heavy-handed antimilitant actions; and because of the frequent refusal by security forces to obey court orders. Courts there are reluctant to hear cases involving terrorist crimes and fail to act expeditiously on habeas corpus cases, if they act at all. Similar to 1998, 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 (see Section 1.d.). Criminal gangs in all four southern states have been known to attack rivals and scare off complainants and witnesses from court premises, denying free access to justice. In some cases, accused persons have been attacked while being escorted by police to the courts. In July an accused person was killed in Kerala in an explosion triggered as he passed by with a police escort. There were no reports of political prisoners. f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence The police must obtain warrants for searches and seizures. In a criminal investigation, the police may conduct searches without warrants to avoid undue delay, but they must justify the searches in writing to the nearest magistrate with jurisdiction over the offense. The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Assam have special powers to search and arrest without a warrant. The government Enforcement Directorate (ED) searches, interrogates, and arrests thousands of business and management professionals annually, often without search warrants. However, the ED ultimately convicts very few persons. In 1997 only 28 persons out of thousands arrested were convicted, according to the Times of India. The Indian Telegraph Act authorizes the surveillance of communications, including monitoring telephone conversations and intercepting personal mail, in case of public emergency or "in the interest of the public safety or tranquillity." Every state government has used these powers, as has the central Government. g. 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. Between 350,000 and 450,000 army and paramilitary forces are deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. The Muslim majority population in the Kashmir valley suffers from the repressive tactics of the security forces. 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 harboring 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 at year's end. This decrease apparently is due to press scrutiny and public criticism of abuses in previous years, the increased training of military and paramilitary forces in humanitarian law, and a greater respect by commanders for the rule of law. The improvement has taken the form of increased discipline and care in avoiding collateral civilian injuries and deaths (i.e., deaths in crossfire). The Union Home Ministry was unable to report how many such deaths occurred during the year but reported that 84 such deaths occurred in Jammu and Kashmir in 1996-1997. The security forces have not ceased to abduct and extrajudicially execute suspected militants, nor have they accepted accountability for these abuses. However, many commanders' inclination to distance their units from such practices has led to reduced participation in them and a transfer of some of such actions to government-supported countermilitants. According to Kashmiri human rights groups and press reports, on May 9 the police in Srinagar retaliated for the murder of one of their colleagues by attacking civilians in the crowded residential and commercial area of the city where the original incident occurred. Police allegedly cordoned off the area and beat residents, including members of a wedding party. Human rights groups state that members of the Rashtriya Rifles entered the village of Chak Doodipora, Handwara district, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 18 during a search operation. The soldiers allegedly beat some 2 dozen residents, including women and children, leaving 12 of them seriously injured. On May 12, a group of suspected countermilitants invaded the home of a 40-year-old Kupwara college lecturer, murdering him, his wife, his sister-in-law, and his 3-year-old daughter. According to credible reports, in addition to harassment during searches and arbitrary arrests (see Section 1.d.) security forces abduct and sometimes use civilians as human shields in night patrolling and searching for land mines; the abuses so far have occurred mostly in the Kupwara and Doda districts. Because of Doda's inaccessibility, the abuses there allegedly have been underreported greatly. The spring and summer incursion of Pakistan-backed armed forces into territory on the Indian side of the line of control around Kargil in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian military campaign to repel the intrusion left 524 Indian soldiers dead and 1,363 wounded, according to December 1 statistics by Defense Minister George Fernandes. Earlier Government figures stated that 696 Pakistani soldiers were killed. A senior Pakistani police official estimated that approximately 40 civilians were killed on the Pakistani side of the line of control. However, additional official Pakistani Government statistics regarding the conflict were not available at year's end. There was some use of torture during the conflict. On June 10, the Pakistan army returned the bodies of six Indian soldiers, which bore evidence of severe torture; however, the ICRC declined an invitation to conduct an autopsy. The fighting also caused some civilian deaths and the internal displacement of as many as 50,000 neighboring residents (see Section 2.d.). The Kargil conflict resulted in an increased counterinsurgency campaign, often with repressive offensive measures. According to a credible government source, as of early December over 450 militants were killed since the Kargil conflict began. Another credible government source said that offensive operations after the Kargil affair yielded 12 to 17 dead militants per day--that the army and paramilitary Rashtriya Rifles were carrying out major bombing operations with heavy weapons in both the northern and southern Kashmir valley. On September 24, seven persons were killed when police in Surat opened fire on a crowd that insisted on changing the parade route of a religious idol through the town. Reportedly, police, fearing an outbreak of communal violence, prevented the Hindu gathering from parading through a Muslim neighborhood past a prominent mosque. When the use of tear gas failed to quell the increasingly restive crowd, police resorted to firing weapons, according to press accounts. State authorities ordered an inquiry into the shooting (see Section 5). Kashmiri militant groups also committed serious abuses. In addition to political killings, kidnapings, and rapes of politicians and civilians (see Sections 1.a., 1.b., and 1.c.), 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. Over the last decade, they have made liberal use of time-delayed explosives, land mines, grenades, and snipers. In the fall there was a significant upsurge in militant violence towards security forces, and a tendency to use heavy weapons such as grenades and rockets. Militants killed and injured numerous security personnel and destroyed a great deal of security force property. On July 24, militants fired rockets at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) picket in Doda district, killing one CRPF policeman. On August 6, militants fired rockets at a Rashtriya Rifles camp in Kupwara district; five army troops and six militants were killed, and three soldiers were wounded in the exchange. On August 7, militants ambushed the convoy of a Rashtriya Rifles colonel in Kupwara district, killing four soldiers; in four separate rocket attacks against police and Rastriya Rifles positions in Kupwara, Chadora, Poonch, and Rajouri districts, militants killed two BSF members and injured seven persons. On August 13, a rocket attack on a Rastriya Rifles checkpost in Badgam district killed two soldiers and two militants. On August 14, in six separate but coordinated rocket and small arms attacks on Rastriya Rifles positions in Kupwara district, militants killed eight army personnel and injured 15 persons. On August 12, two marine commandos were killed near Bandipur, Baramula district, Jammu and Kashmir, when militants detonated a roadside bomb as the marines' vehicle passed. On September 29, a grenade attack on the Civil Secretariat in Srinagar killed one policeman and one civilian. On October 28, two coordinated rocket-propelled grenade attacks against the civil secretariat and a Border Security Post in Srinagar killed 4 persons and injured 20 others. On November 9, militants killed six persons during a grenade attack on an army position in Gandherbal. In addition militants made numerous other attacks and killed and injured many other persons. On November 11, a bomb blast aboard a Jammu-Delhi train killed 14 persons and injured 12 others; no group claimed responsibility. During the period of increased attacks against security forces (see Section 1.a.), 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 (see Section 5). On February 20, Kashmiri militants killed 20 villagers, including 6 women, 1 girl, and several members of a wedding party, in 3 coordinated attacks on villages in Udhampur and Rajouri districts of the Jammu region (see Section 1.a.). The army stated that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group was responsible for the killings, although the army killed the only two militants identified in the case. Between June 28 and July 1, militants killed 36 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir. On June 28, 15 Muslims of 2 families, including 7 children and 3 women, were shot and killed by militants in Poonch district. On June 29, unidentified assailants shot and killed 12 male Hindu laborers in a village near Anantnag in the Kashmir valley; the workers were separated from their wives and children before being summarily executed. On July 1, nine members of two Hindu families, including three women and a child, were murdered by militants in Poonch district, near the site of the June 28 killings. On July 20, some 20 militants entered 2 houses in Doda district and opened fire with automatic weapons, killing over 15 Hindu persons (see Sections 1.a. and 5). Also on July 20, in the Poonch district of Jammu region, militants killed four members of a government road engineering group who are believed to have been migrant Hindu laborers from Bihar. Most officials cited militant anger at the BJP Government over the Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil as the principal reason for the attacks. Extremist and terrorist activities in the northeast claimed many lives. In addition to ambushes, terrorists increasingly resorted to destroying bridges, laying time bombs on roads and railway tracks, and in one instance, detonating a bomb in a busy railway station. On April 27, five persons, including three Border Security Force personnel, were killed when the ULFA blew up their vehicle in Barpeta district, Assam. On June 22, a bomb exploded in the new Jailpurgiri railway station in Siliguri, West Bengal, killing 9 persons and seriously injuring 65 others; those persons responsible for the bombing were not identified. Six policemen and a home guard were killed on June 29 when suspected Bodo Liberation Tigers Force (BLTF) militants blew up two police cars using a remote-controlled device. On April 15, Naxalite militants ambushed the vehicle of a Congress Party politician, Sripada Rao, in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh, killing him on the spot. As part of a series of Naxalite political killings (see Section 1.a.), on September 13, a bomb attack killed five policemen at a police station in Papannapet, Andhra Pradesh. Nearly 100 persons were killed in election-related violence throughout the country in September and October (see Section 3). On September 7, in the Anantnag district of Kashmir, Ghulam Hyder Noorani, a BJP parliamentary candidate, was killed by a remote-detonated land mine, along with two bodyguards. On September 9, militants threw a hand grenade into a jeep, injuring 11 BJP activists and 2 policemen. Numerous Hurriyat leaders, who were suspected of the attacks, later were arrested (see Section 1.d.). Militant groups in the northeast states of Assam, Tripura, and Manipur, killed persons prior to the election and fired on polling places and security forces deployed for the voting. Approximately 15 civilians and 14 security force members were killed in the northeast as a result of election violence. In Tripura the NLFT also used land mines, and the NFLT shot and killed numerous civilians (see Section 5). Violence also marred the elections in Bihar. On September 18, in the first phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar, extremists from the Maoist Communist Center and the People's War, set up land mines in four of the constituencies on routes leading to polling booths. In Palamau a land mine blew up a truck carrying police personnel. Near Barhi, Hazaribagh, nine persons were killed in two bomb incidents (see Sections 1.a. and 3). During the year, police arrested numerous persons suspected of involvement in previous terrorist attacks. Charges also were brought against persons accused of involvement with human suicide bomb attacks to advance Sikh separatism, as well against dozens of captured separatist insurgents in Jammu and Kashmir for bombings, killings, and acts of sabotage. Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including: a. Freedom of Speech and Press The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally respects these rights in practice; however, there are some limitations. A vigorous press reflects a wide variety of political, social, and economic beliefs. Newspapers and magazines regularly publish investigative reports and allegations of government wrongdoing, and the press generally champions human rights and criticizes perceived government lapses. 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. Human rights monitors state that government pressure caused one national English-language daily to suppress some stories and to transfer a reporter in 1998. The 1971 Newspapers Incitements to Offenses Act remains in effect in Jammu and Kashmir. Under the act, a district magistrate may prohibit the press from publishing material resulting in "incitement to murder" or "any act of violence." As punishment the act stipulates that the authorities may seize newspapers and printing presses. Despite these restrictions, newspapers in Srinagar regularly publish militant press releases attacking the Government and report in detail on alleged human rights abuses. The authorities generally allowed foreign journalists to travel freely in Jammu and Kashmir, where they regularly spoke with militant leaders and filed reports on government abuses. For a week in June, during the confrontation between Indian forces and Pakistan-backed forces in the Kargil region of Jammu and Kashmir (see Section 1.g.), journalists were barred from traveling to the immediate area of the fighting. However, the Government allowed the acts of violence that occurred in Jammu and Kashmir during the September and October elections (see Sections 1.g. and 4) to receive wide coverage. In contrast, during the 1996 and 1998 elections, the state government banned the publication of any material aimed at intimidating the electorate. In May the NHRC directed the Punjab police to submit a report on a complaint filed by journalist and author Harinder Singh alleging that police tortured him. Singh is the author of a novel called "Vanity Incarnate," which is controversial in Punjab because of its portrayal of Sikh gurus. In his complaint, Singh alleged that after receiving several death threats he went to police seeking protection. Shortly thereafter, police allegedly took Singh from his residence, assaulted him, and subjected him to electric shocks. According to the complaint, police held Singh for 20 weeks during which time he continuously was tortured. After being released on bail on April 21, Singh filed a complaint against police in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Also in Punjab, the NHRC in July 1998 called for a CBI investigation into the 1992 abduction of journalist Avtar Singh Mander, who has not been seen since his disappearance in Jalandhar. Witnesses allege that police officials picked up Mander, a charge the police deny. A May 1994 investigation by Punjab state authorities found that Mander had not been taken into custody, and no further effort was made by authorities to trace his whereabouts. In Assam the state government has attempted to impede criticism by filing a number of "criminal defamation" charges against journalists. Police beat Prakash Mahanta, a reporter for the Assamese-language daily Natoon Samoy, at his home, then arrested and detained him at Nagaon state police station in 1998. Press freedom campaigners allege that Mahanta's "crime" was to write an article detailing alleged campaign irregularities by the wife of Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. According to news reports, the chief minister denied the charge and said that Prakash Mahanta had been involved in "anti-national" activities. According to human rights activists, Mahanta was released and never convicted. In the beginning of the year, the editor of the Assamese daily Assam Pratidin was arrested and charged. In October 1998, the Manipur government announced curbs on the publication of insurgency-related news. The publication of insurgent's press releases, public invitations to slain militants' funerals, and calls to boycott Republic Day and Independence Day functions were prohibited. Penalties for violating the prohibition included arrest and criminal prosecution of newspaper owners and editors and cancellation of newspapers' registration. These restrictions continued during the year. The Press Council of India is a statutory body of journalists, publishers, academics, and politicians, with a chairman appointed by the Government. Designed to be a self-regulating mechanism for the press, it investigates complaints of irresponsible journalism and sets a code of conduct for publishers. This code includes not publishing articles or details that might incite caste or communal violence. The Council publicly criticizes newspapers or journalists it believes have broken the code of conduct, but its findings, while noted by the press community, carry no legal weight. National television and radio, which are government monopolies, frequently are accused of having a strong pro-Government bias. However, international satellite television is widely distributed in middle class neighborhoods by cable and gradually is eroding the Government's monopoly on television. The Government maintains a list of banned books that cannot be imported or sold in the country; some--like Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses"--because they contain material government sponsors have deemed inflammatory. A government censorship board reviews films before licensing them for distribution. The board deletes material deemed offensive to public morals or communal sentiment. Producers of video news magazines also must submit their products to the board, which occasionally censors stories that portray the Government in an unfavorable light. The board's rulings may be appealed and overturned. In March the Maharashtra government censored the film "Fire," charging that its depiction of a lesbian relationship offended morals. The decision came after members of the Hindu fundamentalist Shiv Sena political party ransacked the theater in which the film was being shown. The film was not censored in any other state; Shiv Sainiks similarly ransacked a theater showing the film in Delhi. Intimidation by militant groups results in a good deal of self-censorship. Kashmiri militant groups threatened journalists and editors and even imposed temporary bans on some publications that were critical of their activities. In August militants just outside Srinagar fired on a television camera crew. Kashmiri militants attempted to halt cable television broadcasts in the Kashmir valley during the year, claiming that they contained "un-Islamic" programming. In a concerted year-long campaign, militants of the Harkat-Ul-Ansar terrorist group threatened and targeted cable operators in Kashmir with violence. For example, on December 1 suspected HUA militants hurled a grenade at a cable operator's shop in Srinagar, injuring three persons. Earlier in the year, militants fired at a cable operator in Bemina, injuring two persons, and bombed a cable shop in Zakura, injuring three persons. In July political parties in favor of the building of the Sardar Sarovar dam across the Narmada river burned copies of the book "The Greater Common Good," by novelist Arundhati Roy, which discusses the socio-environmental costs of the Narmada project (see Section 2.d.). Facing threats from the youth wings of the BJP and the Congress party, bookstores in Ahmedabad, Gujurat, also began to remove the book from their shelves. Citizens enjoy complete academic freedom, and students and faculty espouse a wide range of views. In addition to 10 national universities and about 160 state universities, states are empowered to accredit locally run private institutions. b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association The Constitution provides for the right of peaceful assembly, and the Government generally respected this right in practice. The authorities sometimes require permits and notification prior to holding parades or demonstrations, but local governments ordinarily respect the right to protest peacefully, except in Jammu and Kashmir, where separatist parties routinely are denied permits for public gatherings. During periods of civil tension, the authorities may ban public assemblies or impose a curfew under the Criminal Procedure Code. Srinagar and other parts of Jammu and Kashmir occasionally came under curfew but more often were affected by strikes called by militants. On June 11, police killed 4 fishworkers and injured 13 others when they opened fire on an anti-shrimp culture protest organized by the NGO Chilika Matsyajibi Mahasangh in Orissa. In July 17 persons drowned in a river in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu when thousands of demonstrators ran to escape a police beating. The demonstrators were demanding government intervention in a labor dispute at a local tea estate and the release of 652 estate workers who had been imprisoned after a previous demonstration (see Section 1.a.). Beginning at midyear, the Government implemented a new requirement that NGO's secure the prior approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs before organizing international conferences. Human rights groups contend that the new requirement provides the Government with substantial political control of the work of NGO's and is an abridgement of their freedom of assembly and association. In July three foreign nationals were denied visas to attend an annual conference on building civil society; the conference was sponsored by a foreign university and held in Bangalore. The organizers decided to disregard the ban and hold it anyway. On the eve of the event, the Australian chair of the IALC was detained briefly, but the conference nevertheless was held and the police did not detain anyone else. The Constitution provides for the right to form associations, and the Government generally respected this right in practice. c. Freedom of Religion The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government respects this right in practice. India is a secular state in which all faiths generally enjoy freedom of worship; Government policy does not favor any religious group. However, tension between Muslims and Hindus, and to a lesser extent between Hindus and Christians, continues to pose a challenge to the secular foundation of the State (see Section 5). In addition governments at state and local levels only partially respect religious freedom. No registration is required for religions. Legally mandated benefits are assigned to certain groups, including some groups defined by their religion. There are many religions and a large variety of denominations, groups, and subgroups in the country, but Hinduism is the dominant religion. According to 1998 government statistics, Hindus constitute 82.4 percent of the population, Muslims 12.7 percent, Christians 2.3 percent, Sikhs 2.0 percent, Buddhists 0.7 percent, Jains 0.4 percent, and others, including Parsis, Jews, and Baha'is, 0.4 percent. The Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act makes it an offense to use any religious site for political purposes or to use temples for harboring persons accused or convicted of crimes. The current legal system accommodates minority religions' personal status laws; there are different personal laws for different religious communities. Religion-specific laws pertain in matters of marriage, divorce, adoption, and inheritance. For example, Muslim personal status law governs many noncriminal matters involving Muslims, including family law, inheritance, and divorce. The personal status laws of the religious communities sometimes discriminate against women. Under Islamic law, a Muslim husband may divorce his wife spontaneously and unilaterally; there is no such provision for women. Islamic law also allows a man to have up to four wives but prohibits polyandry. Under the Indian Divorce Act of 1869, a Christian woman may demand divorce only in the case of spousal abuse and in the case of certain categories of adultery; for a Christian man, adultery alone is sufficient. In May 1997, the Mumbai High Court recognized abuse alone as sufficient grounds for a Christian woman to obtain a divorce. 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. New arrivals currently enter as tourists on short-term visas. During the year, as in the past, state officials refused to issue permits for foreign Christian missionaries to enter some northeastern states. In March several declared missionaries reported that the Government had instituted a policy of not renewing missionaries' visas. Renewal had been routine until the institution of this new policy. The policy is being applied unevenly, as at least one Christian missionary succeeded in obtaining an extension as late as the fall of 1998. 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 intercommunity friction, or has been involved in terrorism or sedition. There is no ban on professing or propagating religious beliefs, but speaking publicly against other beliefs is considered dangerous to public order, and is prohibited. In September the Union Home Ministry, after declining to extend his visa, ordered a 57-year-old American priest to leave the country. Father Anthony Raymond Ceresko, a teacher at a seminary in Bangalore, entered the country in 1991 and had been able to renew his residence permit every year since until this year. Ceresko left the country on September 17. In early February, 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. After public criticism of the census, the government of Gujarat stated that it was being conducted to assist in the protection of Christians and later expanded it to cover Hindus as well. However, Christians obtained a court order barring the census. On March 2, the government of Gujarat withdrew the effort. However, in December the United Christian Forum for Human Rights and its convener, John Dayal, expressed concern to the press about a "survey" of Christian institutions and missionaries allegedly being conducted by the Delhi police. Dayal said that police had been asking the principals of Christian schools, the heads of Christian-affiliated hospitals, and individuals about their background and funding sources. Those persons questioned reportedly were asked to fill out a form ordinarily reserved to take the written statements of suspected criminals. The Forum complained that "such surveys tend to intimidate the sisters, priests, and individuals." While the law is meant to protect religious freedom, enforcement of the law has been poor, particularly at the state and local levels, where the failure to deal adequately with intragroup and intergroup conflict and with local disturbances has abridged the right to religious freedom. In particular, Hindu extremist groups continued to attack Christians. In many cases, the government response was inadequate, consisting largely of statements criticizing the violence against Christians but with few efforts to hold accountable those persons responsible or to prevent such incidents from occurring (see Section 5). 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, which Hindus had advocated being banned. On February 19, Muslim imams and Members of Parliament joined Christian leaders to rally against the Prime Minister's call for a debate on conversions and to criticize the BJP's slow response to attacks against Christians. In August a bill was introduced in Gujarat that would allow harsh punishment to be meted out to anyone in the state found guilty of converting someone to another religion through use of force, provision on material benefits, or fraud. Human rights groups fear that if passed the bill--called the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Bill, 1999--could be used to restrict the fundamental right to chose one's religion. At year's end, the bill was still up for legislative review. 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 (see Section 5). The Government reacted with statements criticizing the violence against Christians, but efforts to prevent such incidents from occurring and to prosecute those responsible at the state and local levels were inadequate. In early 1999, the Government described the violence as a series of isolated local phenomena. The Prime Minister on January 4 pledged not to tolerate any further violence against Christians. In early January, the state government of Gujarat increased police protection for Christians in the Dangs district, but stated that the press had blown the recent incidents of violence against Christians out of proportion. On January 10, Prime Minister Vajpayee visited the Dangs district in Gujarat. However, The positive effect of this gesture was mitigated by the presence in his entourage of Hindu Jagaran Manch president Janubhai Pawar, who had been arrested in connection with violence against Christians that occurred on December 25, 1998. While in Gujarat, Vajpayee called for a national debate on conversions, which some Hindu groups had requested be banned. During the same month, Home Minister L.K. Advani called for a thorough study to determine by how much the Christian population in the Dangs area had grown in the last 10 years and what factors had led to violence and anger over alleged "forced conversions." On January 26, President Narayanan made a televised plea for religious tolerance. On January 30, the anniversary of the death of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Vajpayee criticized the recent attacks, called for religious tolerance, and announced that he would start a fast to protest the recent violence against Christians and against low caste Hindus by higher caste Hindus in Bihar. Also on January 30, Madan Lal Khurana, Minister of Public Affairs and Tourism, who had been critical of the Government's handling of the recent attacks, resigned. He claimed that he had been silenced when he tried to criticize Hindu militants who made anti-Christian statements. In early 1999 the district superintendent of police and the district collector were transferred out of the Dangs district, and the governor of Gujarat was shifted to another state. 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 (see Section 5). Government officials allegedly also place bureaucratic roadblocks in front of Christian-affiliated foreign relief organizations, many of which are not engaged in religious activities (see Section 4). In a few instances, state governments investigated and sometimes arrested suspects in cases of anti-Christian violence. For example, after an Australian missionary was murdered in Orissa (see Section 5), several suspects were arrested. In another instance, the Tamil Nadu government ordered the police to investigate a series of church burnings (see Section 5); however, no one had been arrested at year's end. In general government response has been poor with respect to such incidences. In August the central Home Ministry banned the Biennial Meeting of the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation (IALC) in Kottayam, Kerala. On January 7, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), a quasigovernmental body established in 1992 to protect the rights of religious minorities, sent a team to Gujarat to depose witnesses and evaluate the Government's response to the recent violence against Christians. The government of Gujarat reportedly tried to stall the efforts of the team. The NCM released a report on January 31, which was critical of the Government's response to the occurrences, stating that "the communal situation in Gujarat is serious and of alarming dimensions and there is a pressing need to take extraordinary steps to prevent it from flaring up further and spreading to other parts of the country." The NCM urged the central Government to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution, which would empower the central Government to "give direction" to a state government to ensure compliance with federal laws, on the grounds that the government of Gujarat had failed to take adequate measures to check the violence against minorities. The recommendation was not accepted. On January 13, the NCM chairman, Professor Tahir Mahmood, said that the NCM had recommended that Hindus be declared minorities in 5 states--Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland, and in the Lakshadweep Union Territory; this would help the NCM to recognize the problems of Hindus in those states. The BJP is one of a number of offshoots of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), an organization that espouses a return to Hindu values and cultural norms. Members of the BJP, the RSS, and other affiliated organizations were implicated in incidents of violence and discrimination against Christians and Muslims. The BJP and RSS express respect and tolerance for other religions, but the RSS in particular opposes conversions from Hinduism and believes that all Indians should adhere to Hindu cultural values. The BJP officially agrees that the caste system should be eliminated, but many of its members are ambivalent about this. Most BJP leaders are also RSS members. The BJP's longstanding cultural agenda includes calls for construction of a new Hindu temple to replace an ancient Hindu temple that was believed to have stood on the site of a mosque in Ayodhya that was destroyed by a Hindu mob in 1992; for the repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution, which grants special rights to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state; 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 and has promised that it would not do so during its tenure in the Parliament. While at the national level the BJP has downplayed its Hindu nationalist agenda, some Christian groups have noted the coincidence of its 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. d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation Citizens enjoy freedom of movement within the country except in certain border areas where, for security reasons, special permits are required. Under the Passports Act of 1967, the Government may deny a passport to any applicant who "may or is likely to engage outside India in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India." The Government uses this provision to prohibit the foreign travel of some government critics, especially those advocating Sikh independence and the violent separatist movement in Jammu and Kashmir. On September 23, the Government prevented Mirwais Unmar 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. On May 11, the Union Home Ministry accepted the recommendation of the NHRC and permitted another member of the APHC to travel abroad for medical treatment. Vehicle checkpoints, at which Border Security Forces routinely frisk and question occupants, are a common feature throughout most of Jammu and Kashmir. It also is common for police to block entry and exit points in preparation for gathering young males for police lineups. According to a credible source, these search and cordon operations seldom yield any results. Nevertheless, these searches tend to focus on troubled areas, as opposed to the mass searches that were common in the past. On June 18, the NHRC received a complaint alleging that more than 4,700 families that were forced to leave their homes in Karwar, north Kerala, due to planned construction of the navy's Sea Bird Naval Base were compensated inadequately for their homes. Human Rights Watch alleged that the Maharashtra government colluded with the Dabhol Power Corporation to suppress peaceful protests over the forcible eviction of 2,000 persons from their homes (see Section 1.c.). In February the Supreme Court lifted its stay on the construction of the Narmada dam in Madhya Pradesh after the Gujarat government promised displaced families greater compensation (among other improvements). However, many human rights advocates and NGO's continued to allege that the construction of the dam would displace 40,000 families without adequately compensating those who are resettled (see Section 2.b.). (Opposition to the Narmada project was greatest during the early 1990's, resulting in prolonged financial and legal stalls.) Citizens may emigrate without restriction. Since 1990, more than 235,000 Bangladeshis have been deported, many from Maharashtra and West Bengal. 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 10 million Bangladeshis living illegally in the country. The law does not contain provisions for processing refugees or asylum seekers in accordance with the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, nor is there a clear national policy for the treatment of refugees. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has no formal status, but the Government permits the UNHCR to assist certain groups of refugees (notably Afghans, Iranians, Somalis, Burmese, and Sudanese). The Government has not permitted the UNHCR to assist other groups of refugees, including Sri Lankan Tamils to whose camps in Tamil Nadu the Government has barred access by the UNHCR and NGO's (see Section 4). The Government provides first asylum to refugees, most notably in recent years to Tibetan and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. However, this policy is applied inconsistently. For example, the insistence of some border authorities on the presentation of passport and visas by those claiming refugee status occasionally has resulted in individuals or groups being refused admittance. This has occurred in recent years in cases involving Chin and Rakhine refugees from Burma and Afghans who entered the country via Pakistan. Refugees are not required to make claims in other countries. Cramped and unhygienic conditions are reported to exist in some of the camps for Sri Lankan Tamils in Tamil Nadu. The Government recognizes certain groups, including Chakmas from Bangladesh, Tamils from Sri Lanka, and Tibetans, as refugees and provides them with assistance in refugee camps or in resettlement areas. According to UNHCR and government statistics, there were approximately 98,000 Tibetans, approximately 70,337 Sri Lankan Tamils in 131 camps, and perhaps as many as 80,000 Sri Lankan Tamils outside of the camps living in the country at year's end. The refugees in the camps are not permitted to work. Many Chakmas from Bangladesh have been repatriated voluntarily, including all of the estimated 56,000 persons who had been residing in Tripura. Some 80,000 Chakma permanent residents remain in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram; their right to citizenship has been upheld by the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court's order to extend citizenship to this group was not implemented by year's end. The UNHCR reports that 14,962 Afghans, 664 Burmese, 189 Iranians, 173 Somalis, 81 Sudanese, and 60 others, including Iraqis and Ethiopians, were receiving assistance from the UNHCR in the country as of August 31. Although the Government formally does not recognize these persons as refugees, it does not deport them. Instead, they received renewable residence permits or their status was ignored. Increasingly during the year, some of these groups-- Afghans, Iraqis, and Iranians in particular--were not granted renewal of their residence permits by the authorities on the grounds that they were not in possession of valid national passports. Due to financial and refugee-related reasons, many refugees were unable or unwilling to obtain or renew their national passports and were, therefore, unable to regularize their status in India. The government of Tamil Nadu provides educational facilities to Sri Lankan Tamil refugee children, and the central Government provides some assistance and channels assistance from NGO and church groups. The central Government has, for the most part, denied NGO's and the UNHCR direct access to the camps. NGO's report refugee complaints about deteriorated housing, poor sanitation, delayed dole payments, and inadequate medical care in the Tamil refugee camps. The NHRC has intervened to uphold the right of several Sri Lankan Tamils detained in so-called "special camps" to remain in the country. The Government uses these camps to hold suspected members of the LTTE terrorist organization. Human rights groups allege that inmates of the special camps sometimes are subjected to physical abuse and that their confinement to the camps amounts to imprisonment without trial. They allege that several of those acquitted by the Supreme Court on May 11 of involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (see Section 1.a.) remain confined in these special camps. More than 260,000 Santhals are displaced due to ongoing Bodo-Santhal violence, and live under poor conditions in relief camps in Assam's Kokrajhar, Gosaigaon, and adjoining districts (see Section 1.a.). Ethnic Chins are among the nonrecognized refugees in the northeastern states, particularly Mizoram. Chins and Chakma refugees have been targeted by student-led demonstrations protesting their presence in Mizoram. Recent tensions between security forces and Chin National Force (CNF) insurgents operating in Burma allegedly have resulted in the detention, interrogation, and expulsion of some persons associated with the CNF. Human rights monitors allege that a unit of the Assam Rifles of the Indian army raided a Chin refugee camp in Mizoram in July, killing six suspected members of the CNF and destroying the camp. In Manipur the Manipur Underground attempted to impose a $3 (130.5 rupees) "tax" on all non-Manipuris above the age of 12 as the price for continued permission for them to live in the state. The National Liberation Front of Tripura is imposing a similar tax in Tripura. On March 13, a tribal woman was beaten by fellow tribals in Udaipur subdivision, Tripura, because she lived in a "Bengali locality" (see Section 1.c.). (Tribals reportedly feel threatened by the influx of Bengali-speaking persons from West Bengal and Bangladesh, and believed to have regarded her residence as a betrayal of her people.) Mizoram human rights groups estimate that some 37,000 Reangs, a tribal group from Mizoram, which has been displaced due to a sectarian conflict, presently are being sheltered in four camps in North Tripura; conditions in their camps are poor and the Tripura government has asked the central Government to allot funds for their care. In August the Mizoram government announced its willingness to take back the displaced Reangs. The spring and summer incursion of Pakistan-backed armed forces into territory on the Indian side of the line of control around Kargil in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian military campaign to repel the intrusion forced as many as 50,000 residents of Jammu and Kashmir from their homes, a number of whom took refuge on the Pakistani side of the line of control. Many had their homes destroyed and remained displaced at year's end (see Sections 1.a., 1.c., and 1.g.). On December 21, the Assam government offered a good will "safe passage" for 11 days to militant groups so that they could visit their families without fearing arrest; 173 militants mostly belonging to ULFA accepted the offer. The only strings attached were that the militants could not carry weapons and that they should inform the police about their intentions to visit their families. There were no reports during the year of the forced return of persons to countries where they feared persecution. Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government The Constitution provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercise this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage. India has a democratic, parliamentary system of government with representatives elected in multiparty elections. A Parliament sits for 5 years unless dissolved earlier for new elections, except under constitutionally defined emergency situations. State governments are elected at regular intervals except in states under President's Rule, i.e., rule by the centr