Srinagar: A human rights groups, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), on Monday said that 70% of torture victims, perpetrated by the Indian State since 1990, are civilians and 11% die during or as a result of torture.
Report, the first comprehensive report on torture in Jammu and Kashmir titled Torture: Indian State’s Instrument of Control in Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir was released today.
The spokesperson of the group said that it provides a contextual understanding of various phases of torture being perpetrated in Jammu and Kashmir since 1947.
“Using 432 case studies, the report charts out trends and patterns,targets, perpetrators, sites, contexts and impacts of torture in Jammu and Kashmir,” they said, adding 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.
Torture is used as a matter of policy by the Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir, the spokesperson accused, in a systematic and institutional manner, as all the institutions of the State be it legislature, executive, judiciary and armed forces form a part.
The report cites, 19 March 2019, case of a 29-year-old school principal, Rizwan Pandith, who was killed due to torture after being illegally detained in the Cargo camp of the Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police. Three days later, the Police filed a case against deceased Rizwan, alleging that he was trying to escape from the Police custody while no case was filed against Police officials under whose custody he was killed.
“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),” they said.
The statement issued here reads: ‘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 i.e ‘301 out of 432, which include women, students and juveniles, political activists, human rights activists and journalists.’
“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.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,” reads the handout.
Srinagar: A human rights groups, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), on Monday said that 70% of torture victims, perpetrated by the Indian State since 1990, are civilians and 11% die during or as a result of torture.
Report, the first comprehensive report on torture in Jammu and Kashmir titled Torture: Indian State’s Instrument of Control in Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir was released today.
The spokesperson of the group said that it provides a contextual understanding of various phases of torture being perpetrated in Jammu and Kashmir since 1947.
“Using 432 case studies, the report charts out trends and patterns,targets, perpetrators, sites, contexts and impacts of torture in Jammu and Kashmir,” they said, adding 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.
Torture is used as a matter of policy by the Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir, the spokesperson accused, in a systematic and institutional manner, as all the institutions of the State be it legislature, executive, judiciary and armed forces form a part.
The report cites, 19 March 2019, case of a 29-year-old school principal, Rizwan Pandith, who was killed due to torture after being illegally detained in the Cargo camp of the Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police. Three days later, the Police filed a case against deceased Rizwan, alleging that he was trying to escape from the Police custody while no case was filed against Police officials under whose custody he was killed.
“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),” they said.
The statement issued here reads: ‘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 i.e ‘301 out of 432, which include women, students and juveniles, political activists, human rights activists and journalists.’
“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.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,” reads the handout.
