Shambhavi Siddhi
On the mountainous outskirts of South Asia, far from the chaos of parliamentary sessions and the glare of prime-time news—unless it’s used to incite jingoistic violence and feed mainland India’s colonial fantasies—lies an unspoken record of lives interrupted. Kashmir, a region under constant monitoring, occupation, and military rule by the Indian colonial state, is not just a site of geopolitical conflict but also a prison landscape where bodies symbolize power, and detention centers operate as tools of political control.
Since the annulment of Article 370 by the Indian government in August 2019, which deprived Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous status, the incidence of political incarcerations has risen markedly. From adolescents accused of “stone-pelting” to experienced human rights advocates, an entire populace has been criminalized under the pretext of “national security.”
This article elucidates the systematic use of preventive detention laws such as the Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in Kashmir. It scrutinizes the state’s punitive logic and elevates the voices of the disappeared, detained individuals, and marginalized populations. The piece advocates for a reorientation towards recognizing the human dignity of Kashmiri political prisoners, whose very existence reveals the flaws within India’s democratic veneer.
The Architecture of Political Imprisonment
India’s incarceration system in Kashmir predominantly depends on preventative detention legislation, granting authorities the authority to detain individuals without formal charges or trial. The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) authorizes detention for up to two years without formal charges. The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), often employed to suppress dissent, encompasses ambiguous definitions of “unlawful activity,” which can facilitate its potential misuse against journalists, students, and members of civil society.
A report published in 2021 by Stand with Kashmir noted that over 11,000 individuals had disappeared at the hands of the Indian army. This form of displacement is not incidental; rather, it constitutes a part of a broader strategy of isolation and psychological warfare. Additionally, a report by Kashmir Times (2024) noted that between 2020 and December 2023, over 2,700 individuals in Jammu and Kashmir were apprehended under stringent laws such as the UAPA and PSA, with approximately 1,100 accused of aiding insurgents as “overground workers.”The same report further noted that data from the National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in 2022, Jammu and Kashmir reported the highest number of offences against the state among all Union Territories, including 371 UAPA cases, which comprise nearly 37% of all such cases in India. Moreover, Amnesty International (2000) found that the PSA is frequently used to circumvent regular legal procedures. Detainees are often not informed of the grounds for their arrest, thereby violating their right to due process of law. Court orders to release prisoners are frequently ignored, and new detention orders are issued to extend imprisonment arbitrarily. The sheer bureaucratic impunity surrounding political detention makes seeking justice nearly impossible.
Criminalizing Resistance, Silencing Voices
Kashmiri political leaders such as Yasin Malik, Sofi Fehmeeda, and Asiya Andrabi remain incarcerated in Indian prisons under draconian laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA), reflecting the ongoing colonial violence of the Indian state in Kashmir. Malik, the former chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, is serving multiple life sentences in Tihar Jail for political actions the state brands as terrorism, despite his longstanding non-violent advocacy. Andrabi, founder of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, and her close associate Sofi Fehmeeda have been illegally detained since 2018 under similar charges. Both women suffer from severe health issues yet continue to be denied adequate medical treatment—a form of slow, bureaucratic punishment that echoes the carceral logic of settler-colonial regimes. These imprisonments are not just punitive but symbolic, aiming to silence resistance and dismantle indigenous Muslim leadership in Kashmir. The Indian state’s use of prolonged detention, torture, and the criminalization of dissent constitutes a violent epistemic and physical occupation that seeks to erase Kashmiri aspirations for self-determination and suppress the narratives of those who dare to speak against its colonial rule.
The terminology of “anti-national” and “terrorist” has emerged as the Indian state’s most effective instrument in legitimizing arbitrary detentions. Khurram Parvez, a distinguished human rights advocate and program coordinator of JKCCS, was detained in November 2021 under the UAPA and remains incarcerated. Similar legislation has been utilized against journalists such as Aasif Sultan, Fahad Shah, and Irfan Mehraj, who have been accused of disseminating “anti-national narratives” through reports on funerals, protests, or the publication of dissenting opinions. These instances are indicative of a wider pattern of epistemic erasure, whereby documenting violence is criminalized. In an environment where truth-telling becomes an offence, the prison functions not only to control the body but also to suppress the narrative. The targeting of young people is particularly alarming. Multiple local media reports show that minors as young as 13 are continuously being detained under draconian laws. Many are picked up during nocturnal raids, often beaten, denied legal counsel, and released weeks or months later with no charges filed. These are not just legal violations; they are assaults on the very fabric of a generation’s future.
The Gendered Aftermath
Kashmiri women bear the weight of this incarceration in deeply gendered ways. They become breadwinners, caregivers, legal advocates, and silent witnesses of state brutality. Many must travel hundreds of kilometers to visit imprisoned relatives. Some never receive visitation rights. The absence of male family members—sons, husbands, fathers—creates a vacuum that is both emotional and economic.
Moreover, the stigmatization of detainees extends to their families. Women are harassed at checkpoints, face invasive questioning, and are often denied employment or education opportunities due to their association with a “militant household.” The carceral state, therefore, not only imprisons the individual but also punishes entire families.
Yet, Kashmiri women are also at the forefront of resistance. The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), led by Parveena Ahangar, continues to document and protest enforced disappearances despite threats, surveillance, and relentless trauma. Their public sit-ins—called silent protests—stand as quiet acts of defiance in a territory where speech is a liability.
Kashmiri women’s resistance has long been erased or simplified in dominant national and international discourses. Still, figures such as Sofi Fahmeeda and Asiya Andrabi, founder of Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM), defy this silencing through bold political articulation and embodied resistance. Despite state repression, surveillance, and ongoing imprisonment, these women continue to assert a distinctly Kashmiri and Islamic feminist politics. Anjum Zamurad, another leading activist, not only survived incarceration but also bore witness through writing—she penned a memoir recounting her experiences as a political prisoner, thereby challenging the carceral and epistemic violence of the Indian state. These narratives offer a crucial archive of resistance, highlighting the gendered, spiritual, and decolonial aspects of Kashmiri liberation.
Law as Violence
Using laws such as the AFSPA, PSA, and UAPA, the Indian government justifies its application of preventive detention legislation under the guise of counter-terrorism measures. Nonetheless, this legal framework often operates outside the confines of international human rights commitments.
Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)—to which India is a party—explicitly states that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.” Furthermore, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has persistently criticized India’s use of preventive detention in Kashmir.
In 2019, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued two reports highlighting the misuse of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PSA) and the human rights violations experienced by political prisoners in Kashmir. India dismissed these reports as “fallacious” and denied the UN access to the region, thereby emphasizing its reluctance to be held accountable (OHCHR, 2019).
By transforming law into an instrument of conflict, the Indian state redefines justice as a tool of repression. What endures is not a rule of law, but a rule by law, wherein legality not only conceals but perpetrates violence.
Resistance Behind Bars
Despite the harrowing conditions, resistance continues—inside and outside prison walls. Hunger strikes, legal petitions, and quiet refusals to “confess” are everyday acts of resilience. Former detainees often become advocates, joining collectives to raise awareness and support the families of others still imprisoned.
Digital activism and international solidarity movements are also playing an increasingly significant role. Campaigns to #FreeKhurram or petitions by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) have pressured institutions like the European Parliament to address Kashmir’s political detentions.
However, solidarity must transcend mere statements. It necessitates tangible actions, such as funding for legal aid, persistent international pressure, and the elevation of Kashmiri voices within global human rights forums. Significantly, it entails acknowledging that these incarcerations are not simply excesses or anomalies; instead, they form the essential structure of Indian governance in Kashmir.
To write about Kashmiri political prisoners is to confront uncomfortable truths about the world’s largest so-called “democracy.” It is to recognize that prisons in Kashmir are not just sites of confinement but nodes in the broader network of control—legal, military, and ideological. It is also to listen, to remember, and to resist.
Justice cannot be selective. It cannot bend to the contours of nationalism or be suspended in the name of security. It must begin with the immediate release of all political prisoners, an end to arbitrary detentions, and the repeal of laws like the PSA and UAPA. However, more fundamentally, it must prioritize the voices of those who have experienced or continue to experience suffering, survive, and still dare to express themselves in hope.
Shambhavi Siddhi is a PhD candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant at Gender, Sex and Women’s Studies (GSWS)- University of Western, Ontario, researching the epistemic resistance of Kashmiri women in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Drawing on the work of Sarah R. Farris and Lila Abu-Lughod, Shambhavi’s research further examines the femo-nationalist discourse that the Indian State formulates to further its occupation in Jammu and Kashmir. Shambhavi holds a master’s in French literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
