IMPHAL, Oct 22 : Amnesty International in a statement today has urged the authorities in Manipur to immediately revoke the arbitrary detention of Jiten Yumnam, a human rights defender, since 14 September 2009.
Jiten Yumnam is currently held under the National Security Act, 1980 (NSA) which provides for preventive detention for up to 12 months, a release said. He is an active member of the Asia Pacific Indigenous Youth Network and joint secretary of the Citizens` Concerns on Dams and Development, it added.
The Manipur police`s initial memorandum of arrest claimed that Jiten Yumnam was an active member of a banned armed organization, the People`s Liberation Army (PLA). He now faces charges under Sections 16 (committing a terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit a terrorist act) and 39 (supporting a terrorist organization) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and Sections 121 and 121A (waging war against the State) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 and Section 3 (spying) of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, the release said.
After the arrest, a local court remanded Jiten Yumnam to police custody for two weeks. Amnesty International has received reports that he was tortured while in police custody. Before the completion of this period, the state authorities detained him under the NSA.
An undated document listing the grounds for his detention does not include any of the above specific charges against him; it merely states that he was being detained for being a member of the Committee on human rights (COHR), which as a constituent of the Apunba Lub, a conglomerate of 32 Manipur-based organisations, was actively involved in a protesting against recent extra-judicial executions in the state, it said.
Instead, the detention order claims that the PLA and other banned organizations financially supported the Apunba Lub-led protests. It includes vague allegations that the Apunba Lub and COHR "enforced a general strike by forcefully deflating the tyres of vehicles plying on the road