Sreenidhi S S, B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), Sastra Deemed University
Achuda Manickam, B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), Sastra Deemed University
ABSTRACT
India has experienced terrorism for many years, and its history of terrorism can be traced back to the partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947. Following the partition, the land of Jammu and Kashmir was in critical situation as both the India and Pakistan claimed it. Further the act of accession by Maharaja Hari Singh created unrest among some of the Pakistanis. Hence, terrorist groups started to attack civilians over there for the claim over there. Even now The 'Kashmir Tigers,' a covert group linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Doda and Kathua that resulted in the deaths of 10 security personnel1. Apart from these some other factors which have also contributed to the rise of terrorism in India include religious and ethnic conflict, political factors, separatist groups and Naxalite influence. From the Independence, the Indian Government has taken many measures such as by counter terrorism attacks , by enacting legislations, by joining in international agreement to combat terrorism, etc. But sometimes the legislations enacted by the government has also affected many innocents as for example, according to data from the Union Home Ministry presented to Parliament in March, 2022, only 2.2% of cases filed under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,1967) between 2016 and 2019 resulted in convictions2. Recently the offence of terrorism has also been added in the main criminal law of the land i.e., in section 113 of BNS (The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023), which has a broad scope of interpretation. Therefore, this paper explores the various legislations enacted by the Central Government, compared the present anti-terrorist laws (UAPA and BNS) and suggested some measures to strengthen the anti- terrorist laws and to ensure that an innocents are not affected.
Keywords: Terrorism, Anti-terrorist laws, Section 113 of BNS, UAPA, History of anti-terrorist laws,
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