Rights groups seek UN probe into Kashmir ‘torture’
A REPORT RELEASED BY HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP USING 432 CASE STUDIES, CHARTS OUT TRENDS, PATTERNS, TARGETS, CONTEXTS AND IMPACTS
SRINAGAR: Prominent human rights groups Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) have called for a UN investigation into “torture” by government forces in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990.
Releasing a 550-page comprehensive report, ‘Torture: Indian State’s Instrument of Control in Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir’, the rights bodies, in a statement, said civilians in the state had been systematically tortured by the Indian state without any distinction of political affiliation, gender or age.
The rights groups called for an international investigation led by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and urged India to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture.
They said the report focused on “torture perpetrated in Jammu and Kashmir” by government forces since 1990 and provided a “contextual understanding of various phases of torture since 1947”.
The report was based on testimony of 432 persons, they said. “Using 432 case studies, the report charts out trends, patterns, targets, perpetrators, sites, contexts and impacts of torture in Jammu and Kashmir,” they added.
The report found 70% of the victims were civilians and 11% died during or as a result of torture, they said.
“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,” the human rights bodies said.
“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). Fortynine of the 432 persons died after torture, 40 of them as a result of injuries,” the human rights bodies said.
The report said 27 out of 432 persons were minors when tortured. “Professionals like doctors, paramedics and journalists have also been regularly targeted and assaulted since the early 1990s,” the report said, adding that they were subjected to water-boarding, beatings with iron rods and leather belts and electric shocks to the genitals.
The report identified at least 144 camps of army and paramilitary forces, 52 police stations/ posts, 19 SOG (special operation group of police) camps, 15 JICS (joint Interrogation centres) and nine Ikhwan (governmentbacked counterinsurgency militia) camps where detainees had been allegedly tortured.
The prologue of the report has been written by Juan E Mendez, former UN special rapporteur on torture from 2010 to 2016 and professor of human rights law in residence, Washington College of Law, American University (Washington DC, USA).
“Although it makes for painful reading, the report is an outstanding example of how human rights organisations should monitor, investigate and report on violations of internationallyrecognised standards of how governments must behave toward all persons under their jurisdiction,” Mendez said.