India announced a series of measures today to tighten security in insurgency-plagued Kashmir, a move critics feared could lead to an increase in human rights abuses in the Himalayan state.
Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said security forces would have sweeping powers to arrest, detain or shoot suspected lawbreakers in Hindu-dominated areas of Kashmir to combat a surge in violence since last month's fruitless summit with Pakistan.
Police say nearly 250 people - including 133 militants and 94 civilians - have been killed since the peace-seeking talks between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ended on July 16 with no agreement.
"It must be appreciated that what we are fighting is a proxy war of multiple dimensions unleashed by an inimical neighbouring country which has no qualms in rationalising the brutal killing of innocent men, women and children as a freedom struggle," Mr Advani told parliament.
But Kashmir's main separatist alliance said the powers - already in place in the rebellion-wracked Kashmir Valley - would only lead to greater unrest and human rights violations.