The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) have released the first comprehensive report on torture in Jammu and Kashmir, documenting inhuman degrading maltreatment since the last three decades in the conflict zone of Jammu and Kashmir. 

In a concerted attempt to expose the lies of the Indian state, the APDP and JKCCS -comprising parents of those who disappeared involuntarily and human rights activists have prepared the first of its kind comprehensive report of the use of torture as a weapon of war by the Indian state security agencies in Jammu and Kashmir.  The team calls for an international investigation on torture in Kashmir, led by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, besides urging India to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture and completely end torture in all its forms.

Whether it is an Indian forum or an international meet on Torture, India, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, has always denied the existence of torture in India.

The exhaustive 550 pages report entitled Torture -Indian State’s Instrument of Control in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir gives details of as many as 432 case studies of torture since 1990 and provides a context of the use of torture in so flagrant a manner, charting out the trends and patterns, targets, perpetrators, sites, contexts and impacts of torture in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The report laments that “Due to legal, political and moral impunity extended to the armed forces, not a single prosecution has taken place in any case of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.”

“Due to legal, political and moral impunity extended to the armed forces, not a single prosecution has taken place in any case of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.”

Providing an international dimension and ruing the fact that the international community has maintained a studied silence on the gross human rights violations in Kashmir, the report reads, “Despite global attention and condemnation of torture following exposés of indiscriminate torture practised in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, torture remains hidden in Jammu and Kashmir, where tens of thousands of civilians have been subjected to it.”

Torture is used as a matter of policy by the Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir in a systematic and institutional manner, as all the institutions of the State -legislature, executive, judiciary and armed forces collaborate to commit this heinous crime.

The report cites the example of 29-year old school principal Rizwan Pandith who succumbed to torture after illegal detention in the Cargo camp of the Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on 19 March 2019.  In an ironic development, three days later, the police filed against Rizwan, saying, “he was trying to escape from the Police custody.” However, “no case was filed against Police officials under whose custody he was killed.”

“Despite global attention and condemnation of torture following exposés of indiscriminate torture practised in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, torture remains hidden in Jammu and Kashmir, where tens of thousands of civilians have been subjected to it.”

This report gives a brief historical background of the use of torture in Jammu and Kashmir since 1947 to curb any dissenting voices, a practice which attained an unprecedented magnitude post-1990. The report categorizes the eras after 1990 during which torture and other human rights violations, while still being carried out by the Indian armed forces and Jammu & Kashmir Police, were also outsourced to different formations like Ikhwan and Village Defence Committees (VDCs).

This report establishes that the vast number of methods of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, as set out in the UN OHCHR Istanbul Protocol, have been and continue to be perpetrated in Jammu and Kashmir.

The forms of torture that have been documented in this report include stripping the detainees naked (190 out of 432 cases studied for this report), beating with sticks, iron rods or leather belts (326 cases), roller treatment (169 cases), water-boarding (24 cases), dunking detainees’ head in water (101 cases), electrocution including in genitals (231 cases), hanging from the ceiling, mostly upside down (121 cases), burning of the body with hot objects (35 cases), solitary confinement (11 cases), sleep deprivation (21 cases), sexual torture (238 cases) including rape and sodomy, among others.

The report points out that a predominant majority of the torture victims are civilians: 301 out of 432, which include women, students and juveniles, political activists, human rights activists and journalists. Entire populations have also been subjected to collective punishments like cordon and search operations, during which torture and sexual violence has been common.

What happens to the victims of torture? The report provides an insight into how torture has ruined the lives of survivors with a multitude of them suffering from chronic ailments resulting from torture. Apart from the physical ailments, people who have been tortured or even witnessed it, have suffered from psychological issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 49 of the 432 victims of torture died post-torture, 40 of them as a result of injuries received during torture.

The report has noted that since many deaths due to torture-related injuries are not immediate but may occur after years or even decades, accurate figures of such fatalities and morbidity are extremely hard to estimate.

Forms of Torture documented in the Report:
Stripping detainees naked -190 out of 432 cases
Beating with sticks, iron rods or leather belts -326 cases
Roller treatment -169 cases
Water-boarding -24 cases
Dunking detainees’ head in water -101 cases
Electrocution including in genitals -231 cases
Hanging from the ceiling, mostly upside down -121 cases
Burning of the body with hot objects -35 cases
Solitary confinement -11 cases
Sleep deprivation -21 cases
Sexual torture including rape and sodomy -238 cases.

Torture has been associated with other human rights violations like custodial deaths and enforced disappearances. And it is only when a case of torture is accompanied by such human rights violations that it gets reported in the media. As a result, torture has remained unnoticed and survivors continue to suffer in silence.

Official impunity to the armed forces as outlined by even the Prime Minister in his statement on 15 February 2019 emboldens them to continue their barbaric practice of torture.

Will the world community break its silence on torture in Kashmir?