Kashmir traders ‘must have CCTV’

INDIA: WILL PUNISH THOSE WHO FAIL TO ADHERE

This is aimed at creating surveillance state, say activists.

Shopkeepers in Indian-administered Kashmir are spending hundreds of dollars each to install security cameras mandated by authorities in a move activists say is aimed at creating a surveillance state – and outsourcing the cost.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has struggled to quell a decades-old insurgency and strengthen its hold over the Muslim-majority region, where a large number of people do not want to be part of India.

About 500 000 soldiers are stationed in the portion ruled by India – the rest is controlled by Pakistan – and a 2019 security crackdown has seen unprecedented restrictions. And there are security cameras on almost every street in Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, and in others.

But last month, local administrators instructed shopkeepers to install CCTV systems inside their premises – at their own expense – to enhance the police’s ability to watch people’s every move.

The orders say the scheme will “deter criminals, [and] antisocial and antinational elements”, while outlining minimum standards for camera resolution, infrared capability and range.

Always on, the systems should record and store footage for 30 days to be produced on demand from “police and any other law enforcement agencies” without a court order. Failure to abide by the orders, which took effect in April, is punishable by a fine or a month’s imprisonment.

Surveillance system dealers in Srinagar said meeting the CCTV standards would cost each of Kashmir’s thousands of stores upwards of 40 000 rupees (about R8 200). Because of the territory’s frequent power outages, shopkeepers also need to pay for battery backups to ensure uninterrupted recording.

Aakar Patel, former head of Amnesty International in India, said the order “is a worrying development”.

It will legitimise “a complete surveillance of their civic life, threatening their human rights to privacy, freedom of assembly, autonomy and dignity”. –