Srinagar: After intensified militant attacks in the Jammu and Chenab regions, the Director General of Police (DGP) has called for invoking the Enemy Agents Ordinance against people who support militants or militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Those found aiding militants in Jammu and Kashmir should be investigated under the Enemy Agents Ordinance, which carries harsher penalties than the UAPA, including life imprisonment or the death sentence,' said J&K DGP R R Swain on Sunday.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, we have a special law — the Enemy Agents Ordinance,' Swain told reporters after inaugurating a cyber police station building here. 'This law was established to address foreign fighters and invaders, particularly from Pakistan, who attempt to disrupt and destabilize the government, he added.
(The fighters can’t be brought under the realm of investigation, they should be shot dead. Those who support them, if we are talking of investigation there, I’ve said somewhere that they will be treated as enemy agents),” Swain said.
The fight against militancy will be won with the help of the people, including Village Defence Groups, SPOs, local police supported by Central armed forces but there will also be some losses in this fight, he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir Enemy Agents Ordinance was initially promulgated in 1917 by the then Dogra Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. This designation as an 'ordinance' stems from the terminology used during the Dogra rule, where laws were commonly termed ordinances.
Following the repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution in 2019, significant changes were made to Jammu and Kashmir's legal framework. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was enacted, specifying which state laws would continue, while others were substituted with Indian laws. Key security statutes such as the Enemy Agents Ordinance and the Public Safety Act remained intact, while the Ranbir Penal Code was replaced by the Indian Penal Code.
Many Kashmiris were hanged under the provisions of the Enemy Agents Ordinance. For instance, Maqbool Bhat, the founder of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, was executed in Tihar Jail in 1984 after being charged under this ordinance.
Meanwhile, PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti has denounced the move stating: Jammu Kashmir police’s recent decision of invoking the draconian Enemy Ordinance Act from the Maharaja’s era against its own citizens on mere suspicion of abetting & aiding militants isn’t only deeply concerning but a major breach of justice.”
“These archaic laws violate human rights and the punishments accompanying it are grossly incompatible with principles & values of justice enshrined in the Constitution,” reads her post on X.
“GOIs quest to address security concerns shouldn’t come at the cost of trampling constitutional rights and eroding the very rule of law.”