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  The report covers the period from January to December 1996. Some excerpts:  

Thousands of political prisoners were held without charge or trial. Torture, including rape, and ill-treatment were endemic throughout the country, leading or contributing to at least 200 deaths in custody. Prison conditions amounting to ill-treatment were common. "Disappearances" continued. Hundreds of people were reportedly extrajudicially executed by the security forces; human rights defenders to be targeted.  

Preventive detention provisions remained in force in national legislation, including the National Security Act and in state-specific legislation, including the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act: and the Tamil Nadu Goondas Act, The Criminal Law Amendment Bill, proposed in 1995 as a replacement to the lapsed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act (TADA), was not enacted and hundreds remained in detention under the TADA (see Amnesty International Report 1996). Other special legislation remained in force, including the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act-which gives the security forces the right to shoot to kill with virtual impunity- and the Disturbed Areas Act. Judicial review of these states had been pending in the Supreme Court of India since 1980.  

Thousands of political prisoners were detained without charge or trial under special legislation-such as the TADA, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the Disturbed Areas Act- which lacked vital legal safeguards. In March, the government disclosed that more than 42,000 people were detained pending trial under the TADA.  

Torture, including rape and ill-treatment were endemic throughout the country. Victims included suspected political activists, criminal suspects, people from underprivileged sections of society and those defending their economic and social rights. Torture was used to extract information from common criminal suspects and to humiliate and degrade detainees.  

Firoz Ahmad Ganai, a suspected member of an armed opposition group, was arrested in November 1995 in Sonawar, Jammu and Kashmir, and tortured while in the custody of the Border Security Force. He subsequently suffered kidney failure and had to have his leg amputated. In January, the government claimed that the leg became gangrenous after he fell and fractured it in heavy snow. Despite medical reports stating that the kidney failure may have been a result of torture, no investigation was carried out.  

At least 200 people were reported to have died in the custody of police, security forces and prison officials, many following torture. The figure may be higher; the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recorded 159 deaths in custody in the first three months of 1996. For example, in August, Gopalappa, an unemployed man, died in police custody in Karnataka. A postmortem report found that his spleen had ruptured as a result of a blow to the stomach.  

Both the NHRC and the Supreme Court spoke of the harsh conditions in which most prisoners were kept. The NHRC proposed changes to the India Prisons Act, reporting that some prisoners were kept in shackles for long periods. The Supreme Court called on the prison authorities to end torture and overcrowding.  

In August, the central Bureau of Investigation submitted an interim report into allegations that police in Punjab had extrajudicially executed hundreds of young men and disposed of their bodies. The report found that at one site alone 934 unidentified bodies-presumed by human rights groups to be those of "disappeared" young men-had been cremated between 1990 and 1995. The Bureau completed its inquiry into the abduction of Jaswant Singh Khalra, a lawyer and human rights activist from Punjab who "disappeared" after filing a petition in the Supreme Court about the cremation grounds )see Amnesty International Report 1996). The inquiry concluded that he had been taken by the police. His whereabouts were unknown.  

Hundreds of people were reportedly extrajudicially executed by members of the security forces. In March, the tried and mutilated body of Jalil Andrabi, Chairman of the Kashmir Commission of Jurists, was found in the Jhelum river, near Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir. Three weeks earlier he had been detained by members of the Rashtriya Rifles who were accompanied by unidentified armed men. Investigations into his abduction and death continued in the High Court in Jammu and Kashmir.  

In September, in the State of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Ameda Narayana, a doctor practising in and area where government faces armed opposition, was reportedly shot dead by members of the police.  

Reports were received that harassment, abduction, rape and deliberate and arbitrary killings perpetrated by so-called "renegades" in Jammu and Kashmir, and by other such groups, in Assam and other states, were carried out with the support of the security forces. Parag Kumar Das was killed by suspected former members of the armed opposition group United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), acting on behalf of the state authorities. Parag Das's son, Rohan Das aged eight, was injured in the shooting.  

In March, a report, Amnesty International and India, provided a detailed summary of the organization's concern in India, particularly in relation to legislation and the legal process.  

In April, Amnesty International sent an open letter to all political parties on the occasion of the general elections, setting out its human rights concern. The organization issued a number of appeals to the security forces and armed opposition groups in Jammu and Kashmir, calling for human rights to be respected in the election period. Concerns were raided about attacks on political leaders and their detention under house arrest, death threats against civilian electoral officials and harassment of journalists and human rights defenders.