Gayatri Mantra works for World Peace Ameriacan Version!
Nimitz Returns to oblige Indian Comradors!
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
Thus Gayatri Mantra works for World Peace Ameriacan Version!
Nuclear-powered American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to oblige Indian Comradors of Post Modern Manusmriti. SEZ drive, DOW`s entry with Union Carbide backdrop and Napam Bombs and US interests represented by MNCs investing in India for Capitalist Development highlights the Zionist Hindu Feudal Imperialist allaince just after Red Mosque Operation Silence in line with Operation Blue Star
The gigantic nuclear-powered American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, which left the Left parties fuming when it anchored near Chennai early this month, will be headed towards Indian waters once again in September.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday opposed the proposed visit of the American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to the Bay of Bengal in the first week of September to participate in multination exercises. Communists as well as Centrist or Rightist political parties oppose US imperialism while the hidden agenda happens to be promoting it as it is mendatory for Brahminical Super Power Sensex India!
The Nimitz would be joined by another American aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk besides several other ships for what is billed as one of the biggest war games being hosted by the Indian Navy. However, the probability of its docking near any Indian port is “unlikely”, said Indian Navy sources.
The anchoring of Nimitz off Chennai in the beginning of this month had led to protests by the Left Parties, AIADMK and unions. “The significance of the visit of the USS Nimitz is that the UPA [United Progressive Alliance] government is step by step implementing the defence framework agreement with the United States which will convert India into a military ally of the United States,” the CPI (M) had observed at that time. This led the Government to disclose the supervision and radiation measuring measures that had been put in place. This would be the third visit near Indian shores by the carrier, which takes part in operations against Iraq.
On Thursday, for the first time in U.S. history, the United States Senate opened with a Hindu prayer. Rajan Zed, a U.S. citizen originally from India and chaplain of the Indian Association of Northern Nevada, was invited as a guest chaplain through the introduction of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. As during the long decades of the Cold War, the American goal in South Asia continues to be one of containing India while ostensibly becoming India's 'strategic' partner.US President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed teething problems related to the nuclear deal on Wednesday over the phone, and vowed to reinforce bilateral relations. The discussion took place ahead of talks between the national security advisors of both countries next week.Both countries recently decided to upgrade negotiations from official to political levels to finalise the deal. Sensing that the bureaucracy has failed to clear roadblocks, Bush and Singh have now entrusted negotiations to their national security advisors. India’s National Security Advisor M K Narayanan is scheduled to travel to Washington on July 16 to meet his American counterpart, Stephen Hadley, with some fresh proposals.
Fearing that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal will make New Delhi dependent on Washington for everything, former Prime Minister V P Singh on Thursday demanded that Parliament's approval be made mandatory for all international agreements. Ahead of the high-level Indo-US meeting in Washington on the nuclear issue, Singh said people needed to know about developments that affect generations as he insisted that the talks on the civil nuclear deal were shrouded in "secrecy".
Russia suspended participation in a key European arms control treaty Saturday, saying it will halt NATO inspections of its military sites and no longer limit the numbers of its tanks and other heavy conventional weapons. Meanwhile,India has taken the first step towards developing a national plan to tackle the effects of global warming. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s new Council on Climate held its first meeting in a bid to come up with a national agenda. On the other hand, United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) on Saturday decided to abstain from voting in the July 19 Presidential polls and put up its own candidate for the post of Vice President.Keeping up the pressure on the industry to take concrete steps for SCs and STs by way of giving them preference in employment, the Prime Minister's Office has convened a meeting on Saturday with heads of leading business chambers on ...
Zed ended his prayer with shanti, shanti shanti -- peace, peace, peace -- bringing the Hindu wish for peace to the heart of the U.S. capital. After the prayer Reid stressed the importance of peace, especially with the ongoing international war on terror. He urged people to "think of Gandhi, a man who gave his life for peace."
The historical decision to tender an official invitation to Rajan Zed to recite a prayer from the Rig-Veda, the Upanishads and the Srimadbhagvad-Gita was a wonderful act of acceptance and tolerance and a step toward true and healthy globalization. This act is worth contemplating. It invites us to hold a mirror to those in India who have a more narrow view, who consider themselves patrons of Hindus yet express intolerance toward others, which is against the fundamentals of Hinduism.
The character of these hymns and prayers is universal. They are devoted to the welfare of all, not restricted to any particular human community or the followers of any religious community. Still, the Vedas and Upanishads are the holy scriptures of the Hindu religious community. Their recitation in the halls of government of the United States is definitely a unique example of religious acceptance, forbearance and tolerance.
Another recent trend has also raised the profile of Indians in the global community. This is the adoption of thousands of Indian children, especially by overseas Indian families living in the United States and the developed countries of Europe. According to a statement by the Indian government last month, 945 Indian children were adopted in the past three years by families living in the United States. Over the same period, from 2004-2007, 419 children were adopted by families in Italy, 301 in Spain, 194 in Denmark, 123 in Sweden, 86 in Switzerland, 49 in Germany, 72 in Belgium, 68 in Australia, 63 in the United Arab Emirates and 53 in Britain.
The prime minister’s media advisor, Sanjay Baru, said the heads of state discussed issues over the phone on Wednesday evening. “The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the strong India-US bilateral relationship and spoke about the forthcoming discussions between the national security advisers of both countries, scheduled for next week,” he said.
Singh is already under fire from the opposition as well as from his own allies, particularly from the left, for succumbing to US dictates on the proliferation issue, and for putting the weapons programme at risk. They are particularly targeting a recently constituted task force on ‘Global Strategic Developments’ headed by noted defence expert K Subrahmanyam, believing the group’s recommendations would be used to endorse provisions of the Hyde Act that guides US policies on nuclear cooperation with other countries.
Though Singh constituted the task force last November, it only became operational a couple of months ago. The group held several meetings in June and some of its members visited the US to brainstorm with US policy experts and think tanks. Subramanyam and other members of the task force are known supporters of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
A house as infamous as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) can only have 'family jewels' as umbrageous as the fresh official disclosures about the shady activities of America's premier external spying agency in the decades of 1950s to 1970s make them out to be. The CIA papers now made public may not contain anything that was not already known but they are a reminder of the nefarious role played by the CIA during the Cold War in destabilising countries and harming leaders the US did not like.
The supposed warmth that has infested Indo-US relations lately may have blunted the bitterness and resentment that the name CIA used to evoke in India till recently. It will perhaps still take a long time before suspicions about CIA intentions towards India are removed from the minds of the majority of Indians. Disclosures about CIA activities in India and in particular the vicious role of the American Don Quixote-Sancho Panza duo of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in undermining India in the 1970s only reinforce those impressions. They opened US doors to China and the first thing they wanted was to see China 'menace' India.
Buying American debt is one way of utilising the money well, but with the dollar on a downward trajectory, it probably makes sense to diversify the portfolio and look at global equity markets for higher returns. That's what China did last month when it announced it would take a $ 3 billion stake in the Blackstone Group, an American private equity fund - and we have become a part of China's new financial game as Blackstone has also invested in India.
For die-hard China watchers in India - fed on decades of mistrust over a festering border dispute and Beijing's big power ambitions - this would be looked upon as a backdoor entry into the Indian economy. But at a time when bilateral trade between the two neighbours has risen sharply, this argument might not hold much water. According to Xinhua, trade between India and China surged to nearly $25 billion in 2006, making Beijing India's second-biggest trade partner. Currently, India is China's 10th largest trade partner.
It will remain questionable if the menace from the CIA has considerably lessened in the post-Cold War world. The demise of the Soviet empire (with CIA help) has undisputedly made the US the sole world power and the US ambitions and goals for world dominance have only soared further. It cannot be believed that the CIA has become totally averse to spying and plotting assassination attempts that in the past included seeking aid of a mafia don to kill the likes of Cuba's Fidel Castro. There was a time when the CIA will almost routinely plot assassinations of some Latin American leaders. A few African leaders too faced the CIA wrath.
This time around, USS Nimitz and another American aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk will be in the Bay of Bengal to participate in the five-nation naval-combat exercise, to be held in the first week of September, which evoked loud protests from the Left once again on Friday. This came even as US Ambassador David Mulford called on defence minister A K Antony on Friday to convey America's appreciation for allowing USS Nimitz to berth off Chennai port.
Sources said this time not only would Nimitz stay away from Indian ports, the venue of the exercise is well north of Chennai, in the general area between Visakhapatnam and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The U.S. is likely to bring submarines as well because the exercises involving at least 20 warships from five nations would be “complex and three dimensional in nature”. The other nations taking part in the exercise apart from India and the U.S. are Australia, Singapore and Japan.
In its statement on the proposed joint naval exercises, the Polit Bureau of the CPI (M) expressed serious concern and felt these moves were drawing India into the already existing trilateral military cooperation among the US, Japan and Australia.
“In the recent period, preparations have been going on for a quadrilateral framework for security cooperation involving India, United States, Japan and Australia. Coming in the wake of the recent visit of the USS Nimitz to Chennai, the announcement of the joint naval exercise is part of the implementation of the ‘New Framework for Defence Relationship’ signed by the UPA government in July 2005. Japan and Australia are close military allies of the United States. India is now moving to join their ranks. This is a serious development.”
The CPI (M) considered these steps as harmful to India’s strategic interests. The Left parties have time and again warned against such military cooperation with the United States. “The Polit Bureau calls upon all patriotic sections to come out in opposition against this growing military tie-up with the United States,” it added.
The Cold War era has gone. Some in Delhi would even say we are seeing the end of history. But, old habits seem to die hard in the capitals of the two superpowers.
Buried in the heap of the 'lobster summit' between US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin [Images], which took place last weekend in the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, is a document that harks back to the traditional spirit of Russian-American cooperation in the field of nuclear non-proliferation.
Amidst the current deepening chill in the US-Russian relations, the two countries have just signed an '1-2-3' agreement that opens up huge vistas of cooperation between the two countries in the field of civilian nuclear energy.
Bush and Putin also issued a joint declaration spelling out the parameters of their future cooperation. Senior diplomats from the two sides have since fleshed out in a joint briefing in Washington, DC, the significance of this major development in the sphere of nuclear energy and nuclear non-proliferation.
Commenting on the development, highly respected authority on Russia [Images], former US ambassador James Collins said, 'We now have opened the opportunity for our whole civilian nuclear communities in both countries to work together? it looks like we are really taking a major step ahead in the area of civilian nuclear cooperation.'
Collins added, 'And, here is the context: there is going to come a large expansion of nuclear power generation, globally. If we don't have a new international framework for that, we're all going to have problems with proliferation, how do we manage the spent nuclear fuel, etc.'
In essence, Washington and Moscow have entered into an unprecedented format of cooperation whereby they will supply nuclear power reactors; will ensure 'reliable access to nuclear fuel and fuel services for the lifetime of reactors'; and even arrange the necessary funding packages for any country that may view nuclear power as a means of economic development.
Of course, the spent fuel will have to be sent back to certain designated 'international nuclear fuel cycle centres', which will be the sole authority for the management of all spent fuel and for providing 'nuclear fuel cycle services', under strict IAEA safeguards.
According to Ambassador Robert Joseph, US special envoy for nuclear non-proliferation, this format of US-Russia cooperation targets the anticipated business in nuclear energy production 'not just in countries like India and China but a wide range potentially of other countries' (emphasis added).
He openly admitted that the main thrust of the format lies in stopping the spread of sensitive fuel cycle technologies, assisting the management of spent fuel, and to make it possible for countries to 'acquire power reactors without the need to pursue indigenous enrichment and reprocessing'.
At a joint briefing with Ambassador Joseph, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak explained, 'The idea behind this declaration of the two presidents was to give a good answer to those who criticise the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the non-proliferation regime, for something allegedly discriminatory? And Russia and the United States have decided to put their heads together.'
Jospeh concurred, saying, this as an instance of the 'ability of the US and Russia to work together when their interests intersect.'
And, what are those "interests"?
Plainly speaking, the US and Russia are ganging up to form a cartel, which would monopolise the supply of nuclear power plants and fuel and the reprocessing of spent fuel.
Washington is also making a concession to Russia in so far as unlike in the US, Russian law allows the dirty job of reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from foreign countries to be undertaken by Russia on a commercial basis.
Evidently, considering the accelerating worldwide growth prospects for nuclear energy, Russia is anticipating big business opportunities in undertaking the management of spent fuel.
As many as 20 warships from India, US, Japan, Australia and Singapore will be taking part in this "extended Malabar" exercise, which is being dubbed the biggest-ever foreign wargames, in which Indian Navy will also be participating. "India will field its own aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, a destroyer, a frigate and a tanker, apart from shore-based aircraft, in the exercise. The list of warships from other countries is still being finalised and may even include a nuclear-powered submarine," said an official.
China is not too happy at the growing military cooperation among India, US, Japan and Australia, with Beijing viewing it as a strategic move to "contain" it in the Asia-Pacific region. But, as reported by TOI earlier, Australian defence minister Brendan Nelson earlier this week ruled out any move to have "a quadrilateral dialogue on defence and strategic issues" among the four countries. The CPM, on its part, on Friday said the exercise was "a step towards India being drawn into the already existing trilateral military cooperation between the US, Japan and Australia".
"Japan and Australia are close military allies of US. India is now moving to join their ranks. This is a serious development. The UPA government has been forging a strategic military cooperation with US without any public debate or explanation. These steps are harmful to India's strategic interests," it added.
But, despite protests from the Left, the UPA government has continued with the policy of the previous NDA regime to have close strategic and defence links with countries like US and Israel.
We have received reports from reliable sources that members of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a civil liberties organization, were attacked while holding a peaceful meeting in the street in front of the Jangipara Police Station in Hooghly, Greater Kolkata, West Bengal. The APDR members attacked include Sujato Bhadra, Amitadyuti Kumar, Sanjib Acharya, Bapi Dasgupta, Shankar Nandy, Sukumar Tiwari, Tushar Chakraborty, Bapi Das Gupta, Pradip Banerjee, Amal Roy, Gautam Munshi and other local activists.
A group of 50 to 60 people carrying red flags with emblems of a sickle and star, reportedly led by local leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxists), approached and attacked these individuals during the meeting. The attackers kicked the human rights defenders, used lathis (long bamboo sticks) to beat them, and verbally abused and threatened them. When members of the ADPR went to the nearby Jangipara Police Station (located 50 meters away) to seek assistance, the attackers also went to the police station, set up a blockade preventing the human rights defenders from leaving the station and continued to threaten them verbally. It is also reported that the police did not stop the attack despite their close proximity and did not assist the victims when at the police station. After several hours, the attackers dispersed and only then did the police provide an escort vehicle to the victims. Some members of the ADPR sustained serious injuries but a local doctor, who was called to treat them, was too afraid to help them. Later they were treated at a local hospital.
Amnesty International wishes to remind the authorities in West Bengal of their clear responsibility to protect human rights defenders so that they can carry out their peaceful activities free from harassment and intimidation. Article 12 of the United Nations Human Rights Defenders Declaration outlines that:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa200952004
‘India has failed 12 lakh PoK refugees
Since 1947 when Pakistani-backed tribal raiders attacked the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, over 12 lakh refugees from the areas forcibly occupied by Pakistan (now known as Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir or PoK) came to J&K. The year saw a conflagration of a great magnitude. Thousands of innocent people, including women and children, were slaughtered and property worth crores of rupees was destroyed
These 12 lakh refugees from Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Poonch, Rajouri, Bhimber, Kotli, Rawalakote and other occupied areas of Jammu and Kashmir continue to live under misery in the refugee camps in and around Jammu. For the past 60 years, the Centre and the J&K government have not done anything for these hapless people. What is worse is that in all these years, the government has not even been able to clear the status of these people – are they refugees, are they displaced people or are they internally displaced people (IDPs)?
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=4&theme=&usrsess=1&id=162627
Public Benefit Litigation: Refugee Status of Bangladesh Minorities in India
http://www.openpr.com/news/22905/Public-Benefit-Litigation-Refugee-Status-of-Bangladesh-Minorities-in-India.html
Press release from: Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM)
Published date: 06-27-2007 09:20 AM - CET - Politics, Law & Society
PR agency: Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM)
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A Bangladesh Minority family who took shelter in India to escape violence and ethno-religious intolerance in Bangladesh
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(openPR) - Santa Clara, California, June 22nd, 2007 – HRCBM announce today that it has filed a writ before the Calcutta High Court for consideration of granting and declaring Bangladesh Minorities, who took shelter in India to escape violence in their home country, as “refugees”.
The writ petition No WP11718w/2007 dated June 19th, 2007 called for Honorable Calcutta High Court comprising chief justice S.S. Nirjhar and Justice Deba Prasad Sengupta at court 1 to issue order calling upon the Government of India and the state Government of West Bengal respectively as to why Bangladesh Minorities who are currently residing in India escaping violence at their home country cannot be declared as “Refugees”.
The petition was moved by HRCBM’s Advocate, Mr. Jasobanta Rakshit and the chapter head of HRCBM-West Bengal, Mr. Subash Chakrabarty.
A Court notice has already been served to both the Government of India and the state Government of West Bengal.
The honorable Calcutta High Court will convene on this matter soon after the receipt of formal response of the respondents to appear before the court.
The date of formal proceedings will be announced by HRCBM soon after notification from the honorable high court.
Minorities of Bangladesh are subject to state sponsored discrimination and religious hate crime targeted against them in Bangladesh. Since 1971, millions of Bangladesh minorities have taken shelter to various Indian states, whose existence in the country is often denied by government of India. As a result, millions of refugees who escaped Bangladesh and continued till date are deprived of their rights under International law. Their plights are often ignored by the International community as well.
This public benefit litigation is expected to draw attention to the plights of millions of these refugees and bring to light the obligation of UN and Governments of both India and Bangladesh.
Earlier in 2006, HRCBM had filed a public benefit litigation at High Court division of Bangladesh Supreme Court requesting it’s intervention for the protection of Bangladesh minorities. Although honorable Bangladesh High court ordered rule nisi on Government of Bangladesh, justice is yet to be served. It is to be noted that Bangladesh Government ignored the order of country’s high court denying justice to thousands of country’s minorities.
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Fundamental Rights in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Rights_in_India
The Fundamental Rights in India enshrined in the Part III of the Constitution of India guarantee civil liberties such that all Indians can lead their lives in peace and harmony as citizens of India. These include individual rights common to most liberal democracies, such as equality before law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom to practice religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil rights by means of writs such as habeas corpus. Violations of these rights result in punishments as prescribed in the Indian Penal Code, subject to discretion of the judiciary. The Fundamental Rights are defined as basic human freedoms which every Indian citizen has the right to enjoy for a proper and harmonious development of personality. These rights universally apply to all citizens, irrespective of race, place of birth, religion, caste, creed, colour or sex. They are enforceable by the courts, subject to certain restrictions. The Rights have their origins in many sources, including England's Bill of Rights, the United States Bill of Rights and France's Declaration of the Rights of Man.
The six fundamental rights are:[1]
Right to equality
Right to freedom
Right against exploitation
Right to freedom of religion
Cultural and educational rights
Right to constitutional remedies
Rights literally mean those freedoms which are essential for personal good as well as the good of the community. The rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India are fundamental as they have been incorporated into the Fundamental Law of the Land and are enforceable in a court of law. However, this does not mean that they are absolute or that they are immune from Constitutional amendment.[2]
Fundamental rights for Indians have also been aimed at overturning the inequalities of pre-independence social practices. Specifically, they have also been used to abolish untouchability and hence prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. They also forbid trafficking of human beings and forced labour. They also protect cultural and educational rights of ethnic and religious minorities by allowing them to preserve their languages and also establish and administer their own education institutions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Rights_in_India
Human Rights in India
The official site of the ministry of home affairs covers the human rights scenario in India. ... Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Scenario ...
http://mha.nic.in/humri.htm
India: A country with serious human-rights problems
NEW DELHI, June 21 (APP): Despite its reputation as a model of democracy in the non-Western world, India is in fact a country with serious human-rights problems, with many of the victims being Muslim, a Turk website, kavkazcenter.com. said on Thursday. The continuing practice of extra-judicial killings ("encounter killings" in police parlance) has once again come to the fore in India with reports of the killing of one Suhrabudheen Sheikh, followed by the killing and burning of his wife Kausarbi in Gujarat, where a BJP government is in power, led by Narendra Modi.
The Gujarat state government has already admitted these deaths in court. Now it has also come out that three top police officials, led by the Deputy Inspector General of Police D. G. Vanzara, also eliminated another person, one Tulsiram Prajapathi, who was a witness to the killing of Suhrabudheen Sheikh and the elimination of his wife Kausarbi. Charges have been filed against them, the website says.
The liquidation of three individuals for reasons best known to the police has already added one more sordid chapter to the history of the Indian police force.
In India extra-judicial killings are conveniently called `encounter killings' by police. This euphemism has been used there since the 1960s. Although most of these killings go unnoticed, the recent incidents that have taken place in Gujarat have attracted an unusual degree of public scrutiny.
Gujarat is the Indian state where nearly 3,000 bodies of Muslims littered the streets, lanes and by-lanes in 2002, when Narendra Modi presided over a pogrom against Muslims.
"Encounter killings" are not occasional incidents in India. In Indian Held Kashmir they are a continuing saga. Several incidents of "encounter killings" have taken place in various parts of the country. In October 2002 the Gujarat police killed a man named Samir Khan Pathan who was alleged to have planned to kill Narendra Modi. On November 3, 2002, the police shot and killed two men at New Delhi's Ansal Plaza shopping complex, claiming that the two men were Pakistani terrorists.
A local doctor who claimed to have witnessed the event alleged that the encounter was engineered, and filed a petition before the High Court in Delhi, seeking an independent investigation into the killings. On December 28, 2002, the police killed three youths in Patna, the capital of Bihar state, in a similar encounter.
Following widespread protests, the Bihar state government ordered an investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department into the killings. On January 23, 2003, the Indian police shot dead one Sadique Jamal Mehtar, 25, in Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat. The police alleged that Mehtar had been on a mission to kill Modi.
The latest investigation into the killings of Suhrabudheen Sheikh and his wife near Ahmedabad has again focused public attention on extra-judicial killings in India. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, an explanation for the prevalence of extra-judicial killings might be found in a confidential letter written over 15 years ago by the head of the Intelligence Bureau (I
. The report said that the letter, written by the then Director of the Intelligence Bureau, V. G. Vaidya, to then Director General of Police K. P. S. Gill on December 30, 1991, serves as a de facto blueprint for police forces on how to carry out extra-judicial killings and avoid public attention.
The report further says: "It dealt with the subject of some police officers revealing to Western journalists how they had killed terrorists without legal sanction. One officer even gave the journalists access to a militant who had been illegally detained and was later shot.
Although the right to life is enshrined in Article 21 of the Indian constitution, the increasing incidence of extra-judicial killings in the country demonstrates that the government has failed to take effective measures against the police force, or to bring them to book.
The operations against the Naxalite movements in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, and the operations against Punjabi extremists, are some of the most horrific examples. The paramilitary operations in Indian Held kashmir, Manipur and Assam cause grave concern as human-rights activists report widespread instances of "encounter killings", rape and torture of suspects.
According to a report, in areas such as Indian Held Kashmir, suspects in detention cells are beaten and electric shock is meted out as routine punishment to extract confessions and information. The report says: "The methods of torture vary. For instance, in Assam, Indian Held Kashmir and Punjab (particularly in areas where the Punjab police or Punjab paramilitary units operate) dislocation of ball and socket of the suspect appears to be the preferred mode of torture.
Laws such as the Public Safety Act (in IHK), the Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act have led to abuses in various parts of the country. Section 197 of the Criminal Code of Procedure gives security forces effectively complete immunity for crimes committed in the course of duty.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been the object of widespread protest in Manipur and in other parts of North East India because it offers immunity to army personnel guilty of killing people indiscriminately.
Because of the increasing number of "encounter killings", it would be wise for the government and its organs to note what the Supreme Court of India
