Srinagar, Indian police have recently implemented GPS tracking on two more Kashmiri residents who were released on bail in the Islamabad district of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, intensifying concerns over privacy violations and movement restrictions.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the individuals, previously detained under the controversial Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in 2018, were fitted with GPS anklets as part of their bail conditions, purportedly to monitor their movements continuously. This measure has been legally justified by the authorities as compliance with court orders.
This practice is not new; it began with a resident of Srinagar, Ghulam Mohammad Butt, who has been under GPS surveillance since November 2023. The use of such tracking devices on undertrial individuals has drawn severe criticism from human rights activists who argue that it constitutes a form of “virtual imprisonment” and inverts the principle of presumption of innocence, treating the accused as guilty until proven innocent.
Critics have raised alarms about the broader implications of such measures for fundamental human rights, including the freedom of movement and privacy, particularly in the contentious and heavily surveilled region of IIOJK.