Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act
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The Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (PoTA) was an anti-terrorism legislation enacted by the Parliament of India in 2002. The legislation was introduced by the governing NDA coalition dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The legislation followed, and is largely identical in its provisions to, the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) promulgated by the same government in 2001. The act was repealed in 2004 by the UPA coalition.
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[edit] Provisions
Full information regarding POTA,2002 and the text of the act can be found here [1]
[edit] Opposition
- The act was opposed in parliament by the Congress party and the Indian Communist Parties.
- Opposition from Human rights and civil liberty groups
- Numbers of POTA detinues in various states do not correlate well with prevalence of terrorist activities.
[edit] Prominent POTA cases
- Vaiko was a prominent South Indian politician who was controversially arrested under the POTA for his support to the LTTE.
- S.A.R. Geelani, a lecturer at Delhi University was sentenced to death by a special POTA court for his alleged role in the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, but acquitted on appeal by the Delhi Bench of the High Court.
- Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami group arrested under POTA.
[edit] Repeal
The parties which later coalesced to form the United Progressive Alliance government of India, committed to repeal the Act during electioneering, and subsequently, the act was repealed in 2004.
[edit] External links
- South Asia Terrorism Portal (www.satp.org)'s article on the act
- Bill introduced in Parliament to repeal POTA
- The Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2000 - Past abuses revisited? A review by Amnesty International
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