A/HRC/10/8/Add.3 page 16 by many of her interlocutors during the mission that tensions in Jammu and Kashmir were decreasing as a result of the de-escalation of violence in recent years. However, there still remains deep bitterness among members of the Muslim and Hindu communities, both against each other and against the Government. 44. Muslims living in Srinagar provided information on several documented incidents relating to extrajudicial executions, torture, enforced disappearances and rape committed by the security forces against Muslims and they alleged that these acts were perpetrated against members of their community due to their religious background. Furthermore, they submitted that many of them had been denied entry into hotels while travelling to other parts of India simply because their passports indicated a Muslim name and Srinagar as their place of birth. 45. A number of Hindu leaders expressed their mistrust of Muslims living in Srinagar. They remain hurt at the use of violence and threats hurled at the Kashmiri Pandits, who were eventually left no option but to be evacuated from Srinagar in the 1990s. While many of the Kashmiri Pandits remain internally displaced,18 there have also been public statements inviting them to return to Kashmir. 46. Since June 2008, however, it is reported that tensions and violence in Jammu and Kashmir have increased subsequent to a controversy about a transfer of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, which was constituted in 2000 by the state legislature to oversee the pilgrimage to a Hindu shrine in the Himalayas. In a press statement of 27 August 2008, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights voiced concerns about the violent protests that had reportedly led to civilian casualties as well as restrictions on the right to freedom of assembly and expression. 4. Negative impact of laws on religious conversion in several states 47. The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned that laws and bills on religious conversion in several Indian states are being used to vilify Christians and Muslims. The so-called “Freedom of Religion Acts” have been adopted and implemented in the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Similar laws have been passed but are yet to be implemented in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. 48. While these laws appear to protect religious adherents only from attempts to induce conversion by improper means, they have been criticized on the ground that the failure to clearly define what makes a conversion improper bestows on the authorities unfettered discretion to accept or reject the legitimacy of religious conversions. All of these laws include in the definition of use of force any “threat of divine displeasure or social excommunication”. Moreover, the terms inducement or allurement are defined to include the offer of any gift or gratification, either in cash or in kind, as well as the grant of any benefit, either pecuniary or otherwise. These broad and vague terms might be interpreted to cover the expression of many 18 At the end of the year 2007, there were reportedly 55,456 Kashmiri migrant families, of whom 34,878 families were living in Jammu and 19,338 families in Delhi (Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Annual Report 2007-08, p. 8).