Abstract
This article looks at the operation of Indian national security and counter-insurgency laws in the border regions of Manipur and Kashmir. It focuses, in particular, on the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA; in effect in Manipur since 1980 and in Kashmir since 1990), which gives the army wide-ranging powers of search, arrest, seizure, destruction of houses and the right to shoot to kill to maintain public order, without civilian or judicial oversight. Two cases challenging AFSPA are examined. Irom Sharmila, a Manipuri poet, has been on a fast-to-death for the repeal of AFSPA since 2000, to protest against the killing of civilians by Indian troops. In Kashmir, in the case of Masooda Parveen v Union of India, the widow of Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Regoo petitioned the Indian Supreme Court for compensation for the wrongful death of her husband, a businessman who was detained, tortured and killed by Indian security forces in 1998. In 2007, the Indian Supreme Court dismissed Masooda Parveen’s petition, upholding the army’s right to kill on suspicion, and denying any safeguards for civilians in Kashmir by invoking AFSPA. In the light of such cases, this article questions the nature of sovereignty, whether such laws are compatible with international human rights and with the practice of democracy in India.
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19.
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