are observed throughout India and that India’s obligations under the International Covenant are fully reflected in current legislation and are also observed in practice.
Amnesty International works for the release of people detained for the non-violent expression of their beliefs and for a fair and prompt trial for all political prisoners. It opposes torture and the death penalty in all cases. Amnesty International also opposes extrajudicial killings and enforced or involuntary “disappearances.” Some of the main concerns of Amnesty International in India have arisen in the context of measures taken to counter violent activities by armed groups opposing the government, particularly in Punjab.
One of the main concerns in India is that several thousand political detainees have been without charge or trial under special “anti-terrorist” laws and preventive detention legislation, which lack the basic legal safeguards required by international human rights standards. Hundreds of them have been in detention without trial for four years, among them 326 Sikhs detained in Jodhpur jail since June 1984. Some have been in detention for expressing non-violent political opinions. Amnesty International is also concerned about reports of torture and of extrajudicial killings (in India referred to as “encounter killings), and about infliction of the death penalty. In many Indian states prisoners have been ill-treated or tortured and dozens have allegedly died as a result. In 1987 in only two cases of such deaths in custody was compensation granted to relatives. In Punjab, alleged supporters of armed opposition groups – themselves frequently resorting to killings of civilians as well as of members of the security forces – are reported to have been killed in increasing numbers in “encounters” staged by the police. In various parts of India members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and of the Muslim community have been among the victims of arbitrary killing by the police; in Manipur the army has been accused of
