Amnesty International has censured India over a law that has given New Delhi’s forces legal impunity in Indian-administered Kashmir. 

The prominent rights group said in a report on Wednesday that the law is fueling serious human rights abuses including the killing of innocent civilians across the Muslim-majority region.

The emergency law, known as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), gives thousands of Indian forces sweeping powers to detain suspects without trial, shoot on sight, and seize property.

The New Delhi government has refused to prosecute any soldier accused of rights abuses in the disputed Himalayan valley since the controversial law was introduced in 1990, Amnesty's report added.

The Indian army has been unwilling to cooperate even in cases where local police decided to investigate, the report said, adding that senior army officials have dismissed as "false or baseless" 96 percent of the more than 1,500 complaints of Indian military wrongdoings between 1993 and 2011.

The report also includes a series of interviews with families whose relatives have allegedly been sexually assaulted, tortured or killed by Indian soldiers.

Munawara Sultana, who has been fighting for justice since 1993 when her husband was killed during a search operation by paramilitaries in Srinagar, the region's main city, said that she has lost faith in security institutions. "I have lost faith in police and the courts, but I have faith in Allah." 

Minar Pimple, Amnesty's senior director of global operations, said the impunity has given rise to violations.  "This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses." 

Senior Indian civilian and military authorities in New Delhi have resisted calls for the repeal of the law.

Successive Indian governments have argued that the law is needed to quell unrest and track down pro-independence fighters in the region.

However, human rights groups have repeatedly said the law is breeding further hostility and violence across the disputed valley. 

India has deployed large contingents of troops to Srinagar and several other major towns to prevent street demonstrations across Kashmir.

New Delhi’s troops are in constant clashes with armed groups seeking independence in the disputed valley. 

The disputed region lies at the heart of nearly 68 years of hostility between India and Pakistan. The arch rivals claim the region in full, but have partial control over it.

The neighbors have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, since their independence from the British colonial rule in 1947.

Thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir over the past 26 years. 

JR/HMV/GHN