SRINAGAR, (SANA): The Hong Kong-based human rights organisation, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), has urged India to withdraw draconian law, Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from occupied Kashmir.

The Asia Human Rights Commission in its statement said that the alarming number of human rights abuses committed by the Indian army under AFSPA was depressing proof to the draconian nature of this law.

“Many lives lost already…to this the Act underscores the non-compatibility of this law to the notion of democracy,” the statement added.

“The architecture of impunity (guaranteed) in AFSPA negates the notion that this law is legitimate. Army’s demand to continue with AFSPA is against its constitutional mandate, to be under civilian fiat, and opposes the supremacy of the people,” the AHRC maintained in its statement.

It reiterates the universal truth that an army, if allowed to operate with impunity, would not prefer to return to be under the control of civilian authority, AHRC said.

“The AHRC has documented more than 300 cases, so far, where the army has openly violated every expected norm of operative justice and law, where AFSPA is in force,” the statement said.

“There has been not a single prosecution or independent and transparent investigation concerning the unmarked graves in Kashmir reiterates that the impunity is absolute.”

“The army’s dependence upon this draconian law can be interpreted, AHRC said, that the army was incapable of operating in a transparent and accountable environment,” the statement added.

Source: South Asian News Agency – 30/11/2011