10 August 2004 :

India's Cabinet voted to repeal a tough anti-terrorism law that critics say violates human rights and is often misused by authorities to punish political opponents.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act, passed by the previous Hindu nationalist government in August 2002, gives authorities sweeping powers to detain suspects for three months without charge and to try anyone suspected of giving money, shelter or other support to terrorists. It allows for the death penalty.
The law was intended mainly to combat Islamic militants in India's portion of Kashmir, where more than a dozen guerrilla groups have been fighting for the region's independence or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. Separatist outfits are also battling security forces in India's northeast.
However, human rights groups say authorities have used the law to target religious minorities, arresting large numbers of minority Muslims in the western Gujarat state following clashes with majority Hindus.
Several politicians and a journalist have also been arrested, while tribes people accused of collaborating with Maoist rebels have been detained in the eastern Jharkhand state.
The country's Parliament is expected to ratify the Cabinet's decision when it opens later this month because the Congress party-led government has a majority in both houses.
The Congress party-led alliance, which came to power in May, had promised to review the law.
"The law cannot be effective, if it is not just," Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the New Delhi Television station in an interview broadcast on August 9.
Others, however, say repealing the law would boost the morale of separatists.
"India urgently needs a permanent anti-terrorist law," Supreme Court advocate K.T.S. Tulsi said during a television panel discussion on August 10.