Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
According to a statement from the Ministry, Dar is active in encouraging Kashmir Valley youth to engage in terrorist activities on social media. Image Source: IANS
The anti-terror law that is used to prevent certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations has got a fair share of criticism, particularly with regard to its poor conviction rate.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has designated Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operative Dr. Asif Maqbool Dar as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967. Dar is a resident of Jammu and Kashmir and is currently based in Saudi Arabia. According to a statement from the Ministry, Dar is active in encouraging Kashmir Valley youth to engage in terrorist activities on social media. He is allegedly one of the most prominent radical voices on social media and is actively encouraging Kashmiri youth to take up arms and fight against the Indian government and security forces. He is also charged in a case being looked into by the National Investigating Agency involving a plot by terrorist organisation cadres to carry out lethal terrorist acts in Jammu and Kashmir and significant Indian cities at the behest of handlers situated beyond the border.
Also, Arbaz Ahmad Mir, a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was previously classified by the MHA as a terrorist under the UAPA for his role in several targeted killings in Jammu and Kashmir, among them the murder of Rajni Bala, a female teacher. The MHA further added that he hails from Jammu and Kashmir and is currently based in Pakistan. He is also involved in coordinating terrorism in Kashmir valley and supporting terrorists by transporting illegal arms or ammunition or explosives from across the border.
The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) has been a hot topic of discussion among the people since its inception. The anti-terror law that is used to prevent certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations has got a fair share of criticism, particularly with regard to its poor conviction rate. According to the data shared by the Home Ministry, out of total 4,690 arrested under the UAPA Act in the past three years, only 149 or 3.18 percent of people were convicted.
The accompanying chart indicates the number of people arrested and convicted under UAPA between 2015 and 2020. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), around 1,128 people were arrested in 2015, 999 in 2016, and 1,554 in 2017, followed by a slight decrease to 1421 in 2018, and 1,948 in 2019 (the highest number of people arrested in a year).
As compared to the number of people arrested, only 11 people were convicted in 2015, 11 in 2016, 34 in 2017, and 35 in 2018. Although the number of people arrested under the anti-terror law declined by 32 percent in 2020 with 1,321 arrests, compared to 2019, the number of convictions rose from 34 in 2019 to 80 in 2020 (an increase of 135 percent).
The second chart shows the rise in pending cases. The number of cases in which investigation was pending increased from 1,857 in 2014 to 2,549 in 2015, registering the highest increase in a year. The number jumped to 4,021 in 2020. Interestingly, between 2017 and 2020, on average, 165 cases were charge-sheeted every year, which is only 16 percent of the average number of cases reported in these years.
If we take a look at the past seven years data, an average of 1,834 cases were sent for trials, which is 40.58 percent of the average yearly cases taken up for investigation. However, only 4.5 percent of these cases reached their conclusion. The rising pendency in cases under UAPA is one of the major reasons for its criticism.
The accompanying pie chart displays the proportion of total arrests from 2015 to 2019 by state. Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh are the three states that are primarily responsible for the UAPA arrests. Out of the total 7,050 people arrested from2015-19, around 30.6 percent were arrested in Manipur, 19.8 percent in Uttar Pradesh, 14.22 percent in Assam, 8.04 percent in Bihar, 7.31 percent in Jharkhand, and 7.16 percent in Jammu and Kashmir. These six states saw more than 87 percent of the total arrests in the country in the past six years.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
Though designation of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operative Dr. Asif Maqbool Dar and Arbaz Ahmad Mir, a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as a ‘terrorist’ under the UAPA is a welcome move, statistics show a different story when it comes to trial and conviction.
