South Asia Citizens Web

India’s attempt to put its own legal house in order is reflected in two Bills — ‘The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act’ and the amendments to the ‘Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)’. Home minister P. Chidambaram’s Bills bring TADA and POTA back with a bang and innovate a National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Hitherto ‘policing’ was exclusively a ‘state subject’. India’s CBI could take over investigation and prosecution on (a) court orders or (b) with the consent of the state. (…)

Dawn, 18 December 2008
APART from anything else, the terrorist outrage in Mumbai put Pakistan and India to a grim test. They have not failed — so far at any rate. That is the gratifying part of the story. The regrettable part is that the South Asian twins do not seem to have struck the path of success either. As a result, the huge population of the subcontinent is in the grip of fear or anger, both antithetical to rational thinking.
Whether so designed or not, the events of Nov 26 had (…)

United Nations News Centre
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
December 2008 ___
Conflict-related Disappearances in Bardiya District
“I will take with me the lasting memory of the accounts given by the Tharu and other families whose relatives disappeared in Bardiya District during the conflict. I believe their stories. The suffering they expressed is testament to the fact that disappearances are on-going human rights violations. The parties to the (…)

www.sacw.net, 19 December 2008 In some circles, it is argued that the judiciary places unnecessary curbs on the power of the investigating agencies to tackle terrorism. In India, those who subscribe to this view also demand changes in our criminal and evidence law — such as provisions for longer periods of preventive detention and confessions made before police officials to be made admissible in court. While the ultimate choice in this regard lies with the legislature, we must be careful not (…)

The organization calls upon the President, Indian authorities and lawmakers to urgently review the new amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA), 1967, and provisions of the new legislation aiming to set up a National Investigating Agency (NIA), exclusively meant to probe acts of terrorism in the country.