Eideard

Yes, there are parts of Kashmir that look just like my neck of the prairie
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A much-despised law that suspends basic rights and shields security forces from prosecution in the disputed province of Kashmir will be lifted in some areas in the next few days.

Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, said in a speech to police officers that the situation in many areas of Kashmir had become peaceful enough to warrant removing the law, which is known as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Human rights activists have long argued that the act, which gives government security forces wide latitude in areas where insurgents operate, has led to widespread abuses. The discovery of thousands of unidentified bodies in mass graves in the region this summer seemed to underscore the impunity the law allowed.

Security officers cannot be prosecuted for acts committed while on duty in areas covered by the act without permission from the Home Ministry, and such permission has almost never been granted, even in cases where rape and murder were alleged.

The law was put in place in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir in 1990, when the state was in the grip of insurgents — partly fueled by Pakistan — who sought to wrest it free of India…The insurgency petered out in the late 1990s, and the past few years have been largely free from armed struggle. But the act has remained in force and was a crucial catalyst for unarmed protests that have swelled in Kashmir almost every summer in recent years. Last year more than 100 people died in protests, most of them killed by security officers who fired into rock-throwing crowds.

But this summer was largely tranquil, and the state government has been slowly reducing the visibility of its security presence in the region, removing heavily armored bunkers and taking machine-gun-toting security officers off the streets.

Like many activists around the world who support the range of struggle from national liberation movements in earlier days, pro-democracy movements, nowadays – I sincerely hope the Indian government can make it past sectarian insurgencies to support full-blown democracy in a region long in the search for its own voice in governing.

This could be a start.

Gonzalo Esquivel said to be a leader in Nuestra Familia cops a free ride

The authorities in California announced…the arrest of more than 100 people suspected of being gang members in the largely agricultural Central Valley, the latest sweep by law enforcement to stem what they call a growing — and international — menace in the nation’s most populous state.

The announcement, made by California’s attorney general, Kamala D. Harris, capped raids on Tuesday in six towns, many of which have long struggled with gang-related crime.

“This operation was a success,” said Ms. Harris, standing at City Hall in the small farm city of Los Banos, about 120 miles southeast of San Francisco. “And this operation will bear its fruit in terms of public safety for the Central Valley and throughout the state of California.”

The investigation, called “Red Zone,” was conducted over several months and aimed at the leadership of two gangs: Nuestra Familia, a Mexican-American prison-based gang that operates in detention facilities across the state, and the Norteños, which the authorities say often acts as the Familia’s street-level arm…

“This is part of what we’re seeing in terms of the changing face of crime,” Ms. Harris said, adding that the emphasis was going from “purely drug enforcement” to being “equally about gangs, equally about guns, equally about drugs.”

Large amounts of narcotics, firearms and cash were seized in the Central Valley raids, including methamphetamine and crack cocaine and five assault rifles. Charges included assault, mayhem, gun possession and attempted murder.

Throw away the key!