PSA on more than 600 people in 2019, says J&K rights body

“A final list of 635 PSA cases was compiled for the year 2019 through information gathered from the RTI filed by JKCCS and APDP in Jammu and Kashmir High Court along with extensive field work conducted,” JKCCS said in an official release. “We are treating this data cautiously as we anticipate a more number of cases, which are yet to have surfaced either in our data collection or any list produced by the state.”

The annual human rights report says 662 people have filed Habeaus Corpus petitions in the High Court seeking quashing of PSA against them. It says that 412 of these petitions have been filed post August 5, when the Centre abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories.

According to the report, the highest number of PSAs have been slapped in Pulwama district (105), followed by Baramulla district (95), while the lowest number of PSAs (11) has been slapped in Ganderbal district.

The report says 368 persons, including 159 militants and 129 security personnel, were killed in the year. It says 80 civilians were killed this year, which includes six post August 5.