From: "Siddharth Chatterjee" <siddhart-AT-mailbox.syr.edu>
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 01:27:22 +0000
Subject: M-I: Kashmir: Custodial Torture & Deaths



We continue with our macabre task of detailing the real nature of the 
much-vaunted "independence" and "democracy" whose 50th anniversary 
was celebrated by the Indian ruling class and their hired 
intellectuals recently with great pomp and ceremony in various 
parts of the world. The material below, although it concerns events 
in Kashmir, should serve as a general exposure of the reign of 
terror, lawlessness, degradation and misery that this "democracy" and 
"independence" has brought upon the long-suffering peoples of India. 

In this list, too often, theoretical debates are emphasized without 
much recounting and analysis of the various peoples' struggles going 
on around the world as a reaction to the forcible neo-liberal agenda 
being imposed on them with great tyranny. Perhaps, the material 
below will help in righting this imbalance to some degree. 

Those readers with a weak or delicate constitution are warned not to
proceed beyond this point. For the tales of infamy below are grisly
and full of gore which will shock even the hardiest of readers. The 
report from which they are extracted,  "Blood in the Valley: Kashmir 
- Behind the Propaganda Curtain", also contains pictures of the 
mutilated victims in full technicolor (to use Adolfo's description) 
which haunts the dreams for a long time - the very material of 
nightmares. Such is the actual nature of the class struggle.

Sid
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>From "Blood in the Valley: Kashmir - Behind the Propaganda Curtain"
(published by Lokshahi Hakk Sanghatana, Bombay, India, 1995.)

CUSTODIAL TORTURE

"The brutality of torture in J & K defies belief. It has left people
mutilated and disabled for life"

Amnesty International, January 1995.

We will give below a few recent instances of torture, to indicate the
nature of the practice.

During the night of 25-26 May, 1994 there was a cordon and search
operation in Mohallah Kralteng in Sopore, Baramulla district. At about
8.30 am on 26 May. all the male inhabitants were asked to assemble
near a clinic on the road. Fourteen boys and young men (of age ranging
from 19 to 33) and one 65 year old man were taken for interrogation to
two local houses which were converted into temporary interrogation
centres. They were tied with ropes and gagged. A pipe of 4" diameter
was used as a roller over their legs and thighs. Metal rods were
passed through the anus and electric shocks were given.  In the case
of  Md Mubashir Naikoo (35). a razor blade was used to inflict a deep
cut wound on his anal region. (reported by a local human rights
organisation, Kashmir Monitor).

Nazir Ahmed Sheikh (25) of Yuhamma. Handwara Tehsil  Kupwara district
was arrested by army in his village on I January, 1995 and
interrogated for 12 days at Kalam Chakla interrogation centre, and
later at the Langate interrogation centre. He was made to walk
barefoot on snow for hours together, and thereafter his feet were
burnt on a stove. His lower limbs soon ceased to function. After one
month and seven days the army dumped him by the roadside and the local
police took him to the Bone and Joint Hospital, Srinagar. Doctors
found that his feet had become gangrenous, and both feet as well as
some fingers on the left hand were amputated.

Amnesty International, in its January 1995 report on custodial deaths
has quoted similar incidents of torture-related amputation. (Manzoor
Ahmed Ganai and Ghulam Mohammed Bhat).

 Our team spoke to Inderjit Singh Sodhi of Baramulla, who narrated how
 he was 
tortured by the BSF. He is a Sikh gentleman, a diploma holder in
Mechanical Engineering, employed as an instructor in the ITI at
Baramulla. He was arrested first  in 1990 for 'smuggling of arms and
sheltering of militants'. He was tortured by being given electric
shock to his thigh and wrists at the Harinivas interrogation centre at
Srinagar and the Kot Bilwal interrogation centre at Jammu. He then
spent four years in jail under TADA and PSA, and came out in 1994. As
soon as he came out he was again taken away by the BSF and tortured.
He was given electric shock and roller treatment for five hours. As he
was being crushed under rollers, he was forced to drink six litres of
chilli water through his nose. But while this was in progress, the
people of Baramulla demonstrated for his release, and he was taken to
a hospital by the BSF.

Such examples can be multiplied by the thousand. We will merely list
the various methods of torture commonly used: electric shocks are
given very commonly to sensitive parts such as the penis, the feet,
the legs, the forehead, the tongue, the ears, and the temples. Roller
treatment is also very common. In this form of torture heavily built
armymen stand upon rollers placed on the prostrate body and crush it.
Burning sensitive parts of the body with cigarettes; burning the limbs
on a stove or with a paraffin lamp or candles; pressing a hot iron on
the back and other parts of the body; are common methods of torture.
In almost every case, the victims complain of being forced to drink
large quantities of drain water by forcibly putting the head in the
water. Some have been forced to drink boiling water or chilli water.
Some have had chilli paste put in the eyes. Sometimes the army men do
not use a roller but five or six of them trample upon the prostrate
body for a long time. Beating for a long time with rifle butts and
sticks, especially on the knees; the bone-joints and ankles is another
favourite feature. When being beaten the victims are sometimes
suspended either by the wrists or by the ankles for many hours at a
stretch. Sometimes they are suspended by the knees from a horizontal
bar. The detenu is often not given any food to eat for long periods.
Sodomy, forcible masturbation and being forced to eat the ejaculated
semen have also been reported. Some detenus have had their flesh cut
up in small bits from the thighs, buttocks etc. Rods are inserted in
the rectum and forced in so that the internal organs are damaged.
Chilli powder is inserted into the anus or tied in a small bag to the
penis. Razor blades and bayonets are used to lacerate the skin and
flesh deeply. Some have been tied to trees and shot at randomly, to
survive with bullet injuries in case it does not end fatally. The case
of Masroof Sultan, one such miraculous survivor, has been given in
detail by Amnesty International in its January 1995 report. Often the
detenus are not allowed to sleep for a whole week, and are not allowed
to answer calls of nature. They are kept nude m the intense cold of
the Kashmiri winter. Many of the victims also speak of being subjected
to deliberate humiliation by abusing their Islamic identity and
beliefs. The Quran and the Prophet are abused. If the detenu is
bearded, then, the beard being a symbol of his Muslim identity, it is
deliberately burnt or plucked, which is both a physical torture and
humiliation. He is also forced to drink liquor, which is regarded as
an un-lslamic practice.

That these and similar methods of torture are used regularly is
revealed by the factsheets collected from victims of torture by the
Human Rights division of the Institute of Kashmir Studies, which has
published the factsheets in a number of reports it has brought out
since 1993.

It may be said that most (if not all) of these methods of torture are
used by the police all over India. That is quite true. But it acquires
a different connotation when every Kashmiri Muslim becomes liable for
such treatment merely because he is a Kashmiri

Muslim, and literally tens of thousands have actually suffered such
treatment. Secondly. while these methods are not altogether novel,
they appear to be much more intensively and brutally applied in
Kashmir, as witness the cases of gangrene leading to amputation. and
frequent incidence of renal failure leading to death. These incidents
of renal failure have been attributed by Kashmiri medical experts to
roller treatment, which 'crushes and ruptures the muscles, leading to
breakdown of toxins which enter the blood stream and cause renal
failure' (as quoted by AI). This kind of destruction of muscle tissue
is called rhabdomyolysis and the doctor in charge of the dialysis unit
of the Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar is said to have
commented to a London journalist in black humour that 'no other part
of the globe has contributed so many cases to medical literature'. The
point we wish to make here is that roller treatment is one of the most
commonly used forms of torture in Indian police stations. And yet it
has been left to the Indian army in J & K to reveal. by the brutal
intensity of its use of that form of torture that it can lead to renal
failure, which can easily be fatal.

DEATHS IN CUSTODY

"Every month there are more than 25 custodial deaths in Jammu and
Kashmir".

Kashmir Monitor

The various forms of torture described above can lead to fatal
injuries or disease and the detenu may die. Perhaps more commonly
deaths in custody happen by the deliberate design described as a
policy of  'catch and kill' by the Kashmiri human rights activists.

We give here a couple of recent examples of this 'catch and kill'
operation of custodial killing just to give the readers a taste of the
nature of this operation.

In the early hours (1.30 am) of 30 July, 1995 an explosive planted on
the Bemina by pass in Srinagar hit an armed forces vehicle, killing
three personnel. Within three hours the forces came to the spot, and
took into custody the proprietor of a spare parts shop, Riaz Ahmed
(41), whose shop was located near the place of the incident. They
alleged that the explosive had been planted by the militants in the
presence of Riaz Ahmed. That evening, at about 7.30 pm Riaz Ahmed's
dead body was brought there by the army, and the chopped head and body
were placed on the road, a hundred metres from each other.

Md Mushtaq was a 36 year old unmarried resident of Gulhati in Rajouri
district of the Jammu region on the Pakistan border. The behaviour of
the army is particularly vicious near the border. This man was said to
be mentally retarded. On a day in the last week of July 1995 he was
walking past an army post at Gambhir, on his way from Rajouri to his
native village. He was detained and questioned by the army. After the
first couple of questions he stopped answering. He was tortured badly
by the army and his skull was cracked with a rifle butt injury. The
army personnel took him to hospital at Rajouri and tried to take a
letter from his parents to the effect that it was they who had brought
him to the hospital with an unexplained head injury. This account was
given to us by an advocate of Rajouri Bar.

This is a truly macabre story. Hilal Ahmed Nasti (a bank employee) of
Anantnag, Gulam Rasul of Hutmoora, Anantnag district, and Ramja Alish
and Farooq Ahmed Wani of Salgama were arrested at Hutmoora on 13 June
1995. According to Farooq Ahmed Wani, the only survivor of this death
story, the four of them were taken to a Rashtriya Rifles (RR) camp
where Hilal Ahmed Nasti was first killed while the others watched. His
body was cut into five pieces and the second of the four was told to
put the pieces in a gunny bag and dump them in the Jhelum river. He
did so and came back. Then he was killed, cut into five pieces and
given to the third person to take in a gunny bag and throw in the
river. When he did so and came back the same fate awaited him. Farooq
Ahmed Wani was given the five pieces of his slain body to dump in the
river. Farooq, however, jumped into the river along with his burden
and despite being wounded in the shoulder by RR gunfire, he swam
across and escaped. He later gave a sworn statement recording these
events to a judicial magistrate at Anantnag. (There is also a
photograph of the piece of the dead body with which he jumped in the
river.)



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