16,620 Cases Registered Under Tada In J & K

As many as 16,620 cases have been registered under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) in Jammu and Kashmir between 1990 and 1995. This was stated in the state Assembly yesterday by the minister of state for home, Ali Mohammad Sagar, in written reply to a joint question by Hans Raj Dogra, Mushtiaq Ahmed Lone and Mufti Mehbooba.

Of these, 14,958 cases were registered in Kashmir valley and the remaining in Jammu region during the period. However no case has been registered under Tada since 1996, he said.

The minister said as many as 14,214 persons were arrested between 1990 and March 1997 from the Kashmir valley and 1,612 persons from the Jammu region.

The minister said only one case has been withdrawn from the courts so far and no case was withdrawn just to facilitate the release of some hostages from the clutches of the militants, he added.

He said 1,142 persons were in jails in and ouside the state at present for their involvement in militancy related acts, and all of them were detained under Public Safety Act (PSA), he said.

Sagar said there were only 193 persons in jail against whom PSA has expired and they were now in judicial custody in other substantative offences. The cases of such people were generally reviewed by state level screening committee and the process was sufficiently transparent, he said.

The minister said as many as 1,342 persons were lodged in various jails at present since October 1, 1996. Speaking on the subject, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said Tada was a draconian law and must be replaced. But he sought time for reviewing Tada cases.

Abdullah said there were some detenues who had confessed their hand in killings of innocent people and such perons must be punished under the law of the land.

People were not coming forward to give evidence due to to fear of gun, he said, referring to the assassination of Mirwaiz and Maulana Farooq in 1990 and added that the government has the evidence but the witness was not prepared to appear before the court.