In the three years since 5 August 2019, the Indian government has drastically intensified the repression of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, including journalists and human rights defenders by subjecting them to multiple human rights violations. These violations include restrictions on rights to freedom of opinion and expression; to liberty and security of person; to movement; to privacy; and to remedy and access to justice. The authorities have committed these violations with absolute impunity. The critical decision of revoking the state’s autonomy and depriving it of its statehood was made without ensuring consultation and any participation of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, amidst a complete communication clampdown which included the suspension of telephone and internet
services, curfew on movement, and mass detentions of political leaders, human rights activists, and lawyers in the region.

Amnesty International has monitored the human rights situation in Jammu & Kashmir for several years and found that the Indian government’s clampdown on dissent in Jammu and Kashmir has intensified since 5 August 2019. This intensification has had the impact of establishing increased control over
the region through a system of laws, policies and practices that systematically annihilate critical voices and violate the rights to freedom of expression and opinion of journalists and human rights defenders. Between 25 July 2022 and 4 August 2022, Amnesty International spoke to representatives of civil society in Jammu & Kashmir including journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and a former judge. Amnesty International found unreasonable restrictions placed on freedom of movement and the right to political participation, as well as undue limitations on freedom of expression along with arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the people. Human rights defenders and journalists are at a higher risk of these violations in Jammu & Kashmir. This briefing builds on Amnesty’s earlier investigations, which found violations of the right to freedom of expression that impeded the ability of Kashmiri politicians and lawmakers from representing the concerns of their constituents effectively and currently hinder the journalists from telling the stories of the people of Jammu & Kashmir independently without fear. Amnesty International could not access places of detention or courts in Jammu & Kashmir due to the ongoing crackdown on Amnesty International India. In that regard, in some cases, reliance on second-hand testimony or review of publicly available information was necessary. This has been triangulated with official data and other sources.
Through the interviews conducted by Amnesty International and review of media sources, the organisation recorded the details of at least 60 instances in which journalists and human rights defenders have been subjected to interrogations, criminal investigations, arbitrary arrest, detention, and surveillance since August 2019. The passing of repressive policies such as the 2020 Revised Media Policy and 2021 Film Policy have further been used as attempts to legitimise the censorship of expression and ensured a total control of information coming out of the region by the Indian government. Multiple news media outlets and human rights organisations consistently face raids and investigations from the National Investigation Agency and the Income Tax Department over politically motivated charges of financial irregularities. The harassment and intimidation have led to many journalists either losing or leaving their jobs. In addition, the sudden and forced closure of Kashmir Press Club in 2022 by the Indian government has further silenced the culture of debate and solidarity amongst the journalists.
This briefing also documents how since 5 August 2019, the Indian authorities have increased the use of travel bans, which are arbitrary executive actions not backed by any court order, warrant or even a written explanation, on journalists and human rights defenders violating their right to freedom of movement. Amnesty International found that between 5 August 2019 and 5 August 2022, at least six individuals including journalists, human rights activists and academics were stopped from travelling abroad without any reason.
On 8 August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the revocation of Jammu & Kashmir’s special autonomy was directed at “normalizing the situation” and ‘preventing terrorism’ in the region and ‘bringing it at par with the rest of India’. This came with the repeal of over 164 local laws and the extension of 143 central laws to the region.9 However, despite a massive alteration in the legislative framework of Jammu & Kashmir, the 1990 Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Forces Power Act (AFSPA), which empowers the army personnel to shoot or kill any person with complete impunity by requiring the central government to grant permission for prosecution of accused security personnel, robustly continues to be in force. Amnesty International analysed the data presented by the Government of India before the Parliament and found that Jammu & Kashmir accounts for the highest number of police involved deaths, known as ‘police encounters’ in the country between April 2020 and March 2022. At the same time, unlawful killings of civilians by the armed groups have increased
by 20% since the abrogation of Article 370.10 Amongst the civilians, between 2019 and 2021, the killings of the members of the minority community including Hindus and Sikhs have almost doubled.

According to the Supreme Court of India, armed forces are deployed to restore normalcy and if such normalcy is not restored for a prolonged period, it indicates a collective failure of the armed forces and the civil administration, raising alarming concerns about the lofty promises made by the Indian
government during the revocation of Article 370. In contrast to AFSPA, the Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information - one of the progressive local laws -
was replaced by the 2005 central Right to Information Act that has been watered down over the years. Amnesty International found that the repeal has led to many Right to Information activists and human rights defenders endlessly waiting for responses to their information requests. The annulling of local laws also resulted in the dissolution of seven autonomous oversight institutions in Jammu & Kashmir including the Human Rights Commission, leaving people in the region without an accessible substitute. Through its interviews with the former chairperson of the Jammu & Kashmir State Human Rights Commission, journalists, and a lawyer, Amnesty International found that the dissolution combined with increased pendency in the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh
has infringed upon people’s right to meaningful remedy against human rights violations, particularly arbitrary arrest, and unlawful detention in the region.
Amnesty International reviewed the case information of 1346 habeas corpus filed with the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh and found that since 2019, overall, the number of habeas corpus petitions filed with the court has increased by 32%. Specifically, the Srinagar wing of the High Court
which has a majority Muslim population registered a higher number of habeas corpus petitions. As of 4 August 2022, only 14 habeas corpus petitions out of 585 petitions filed in 2022 were disposed of by the Court. It also reviewed the data published by the National Crime Record Bureau and found that there has been a 12% increase in the use of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) – India’s primary anti-terror law in Jammu & Kashmir. UAPA allows the authorities to keep a person detained for 180 days as opposed to 90 days in other criminal laws without a charge sheet.
Given the crisis of systemic human rights violations in Jammu & Kashmir, Amnesty International calls on the Government of India to immediately drop all politically motivated charges against journalists and human rights defenders arrested for exercising their freedom of expression, release those arbitrarily detained under administrative detention and other repressive laws, and ensure anyone facing charges for internationally recognized criminal offences are tried promptly and fairly in a regular court. The government must also remove unjust barriers placed on the people of Jammu & Kashmir from expressing themselves freely and provide them access to meaningful remedy and justice.
The Indian government must also take steps to increase the representation and participation of the people of Jammu & Kashmir in decision-making processes. The government’s efforts to put in place unlawful measures of interrogating journalists and human rights defenders, as well as seizing their personal devices and arbitrarily detaining them reflect poorly on its role as a member of the UN Human Rights Council. This should concern the international community. Amnesty International also calls on the international community to hold the Indian government accountable for the grave human rights violations committed in Jammu & Kashmir by calling for an immediate and independent investigation into such violations.