Police Press Release misunderstood, misinterpreted in Kashmir

ANN News Desk  

Srinagar, March 25: J&K Police has been spreading various awareness campaigns like drug de-addiction, cyber-crimes in the public interest.

Carrying on with these awareness campaigns, J&K Police on Thursday evening spread a word of awareness about Unlawful Activities Act (UAPA), advising people to be vigilant and not to do any kind of activity which would warrant action under law against them under UAPA.

However, some mistook the UAPA in a sense as the law was signed in evening and invoked in morning.

Facts:

Unlawful Activities Prevention Act came into force in country in 1969. In J&K it is in vogue since decades and former regimes in erstwhile state of J&K led by Dr Farooq Abdulla, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, Omar Abdulla and Mehbooba Mufti has invoked this legislation to book people involved in anti-country or militancy activities.

In its press release, the J&K Police, like other awareness campaigns, spread a word of awareness about UAPA, advising people to act as responsible citizens while throwing light on the provisions of law.

“This law exists in J&K since decades and has been invoked in thousands of FIRs. Some mistook and misinterpreted Police press release in bad taste,” said one of the lawyers at J&K High Court.

Pertinently, ANN News in its prime time live TV show on 25 March, this year, was the first to tell people that Police Press release is the part of its awareness campaign and elaborated UAPA exists since decades in J&K.

In this live TV show, the viewers were further informed that it is after proper impartial and professional Police investigation wherein it is looked into whether providing aid to militants was “willful” or under “duress.”