NEW YORK - India detains hundreds of Kashmiris each year without charge or trial in Occupied Kashmir, Amnesty International said Monday in a new report, which also compares Indian polices brutal methods in the held valley with those of Israeli security forces in Palestine. The 70-page report focuses on the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (PSA) and calls it a system of administrative detention that is a lawless law and should be repealed at the earliest. The rights watchdog said India has so far chosen to ignore calls of the UN human rights mechanisms in relation to its administrative detention regime. The recommendations hold not just for Israel and Egypt but also for India, it said. The report has clubbed India with Israel and Egypt, calling for the system of refrain from using administrative detention, in particular against children. The report is based on a review of a large number of cases of people detained under the PSA. The act empowers district magistrates to detain people for up to two years. Almost anything, from anti-state activities to timber smuggling can land people in jail under the act. The PSA has been IHK polices weapon of choice against Kashmiris struggling for their right to self-determination. The draconian act has come under repeated criticism from human rights groups which have expressed alarm over Kashmiris caught in the fight between Indian security forces and militant groups. The Amnesty report estimated that between 8,000 to 20,000 people were detained in the past two decades; 322 of them were held between January and September of last year when a wave of unrest swept the region and people took to the streets in deadly anti-India protests. The Jammu and Kashmir authorities are using PSA detentions as a revolving door to keep people they cant or wont convict through proper legal channels locked up and out of the way, Sam Zarifi, Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific Director, said in a statement. Hundreds of people are being held each year on spurious grounds, with many exposed to higher risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Among the detainees are political leaders and activists, suspected members or supporters of armed opposition groups, lawyers, journalists, and protesters, including children, Amnesty said. The report said that often, people are initially picked up for unofficial interrogation and have no access to a lawyer or their families. Amnesty said the Indian government has relied on the safety act in dealing with a resurgence of street demonstration calling for an end to Indias rule. Despite this apparent shift in the nature of the unrest, Jammu and Kashmir authorities continue to rely on the PSA rather than attempting to charge and try those suspected of committing criminal acts, Zarifi said. The PSA undermines the rule of law and reinforces deeply held perceptions that police and security forces are above the law. Held Kashmir 'Chief Minister Omar Abdullah denied that so many people had been detained under the act. He said 4,046 people were arrested in the protests.