7 protestors were killed by Indian forces following a gun battle that claimed the lives of three pro-freedom rebels.

The UAPA gives powers to the Indian government to designate an individual as a ‘terrorist’. The primary aim of UAPA is to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India. This act is in place to “prevent terror-related activities, unlawful associations, and activities that may endanger the sovereignty and integrity of India.”. It allows the government to jail an individual for six months, without a trial or bail, stonewalling any judicial intervention.

In Kashmir, the UAPA is being used to stifle all forms of dissent and expression of the people against the ongoing occupation and settler colonization. India is expanding the definition of “terrorism” to include all forms of not just legitimate armed resistance to colonial rule, but also non-violent expression. This further endangers Kashmiri civil society and rights defenders.

Since 2019, over 2,300 people have been arrested under the UAPA in Kashmir. Almost half of them are still in prison.”

Days after police filed the chargesheet against an army captain and two civilians for abducting and murdering three Kashmiris in a staged encounter in July 2020, state police announced that three “terrorists” had been killed in an overnight “encounter” in the Lawaypora area on the outskirts of Srinagar.

The deceased were identified as as Ajaz Maqbool Ganie and Ather Mushtaq from South Kashmir’s Pulwama district and Zubair Ahmad Lone from Shopian. The men had allegedly been murdered in yet another fake encounter; the families said that their relatives had left home on December 29 and had not returned. All the three men had called their families that evening to say that they would get home late that night or the next morning. But by the evening, their phones had been switched off.