Violence in Kashmir sparks protests
NEW DELHI — Anger has spread in some remote parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir after three civilians were killed while in army custody, officials and residents said Saturday.
Locals said the Indian army detained at least eight civilians Friday for questioning, the day after rebels fighting against Indian rule ambushed two army vehicles in the southern Poonch district, killing four soldiers and wounding three others. Poonch is close to the highly militarized line of control that divides the disputed Himalayan region between India and Pakistan.
Locals accused army personnel of torturing three of those detainees to death at a nearby military camp. The bodies were later handed over to the local police, who in turn contacted families. Residents said the bodies bore marks of severe torture.
The five other detainees were taken to an army hos- pital after they were severely tortured, their families said.
Mohammed Younis, a resident, said soldiers came to his Topa Peer village in the Poonch district Friday morning and detained nine villagers, including his two brothers and a cousin. An elderly man was let go, he said, but the others were ruthlessly beaten and electrocuted.
“My two brothers and a cousin are badly hurt due to torture. They are being treated in an army hospital,” Younis said after seeing one of his brothers.
Videos purported to show the torture of detained civilians spread online hours after their incarceration, triggering widespread anger.
Authorities cut off internet services on smart devices in Poonch and nearby Rajouri on Saturday morning, a common tactic to dispel possible protests and discourage dissemination of the videos.
Lt. Col. Suneel Bartwal, an Indian army spokesman, said a search operation for the militants responsible for the ambush has been ongoing since Thursday evening, adding that he had no “input” about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the three civilians.
The government’s information department wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that after medical formalities, a legal action “has been initiated by the appropriate authority” into the killings, without further explanation. It said authorities also announced financial assistance to the victims’ families.
Senior police and civil of- ficials visited the village and supervised the burials. Local officials said police would investigate the incident in an attempt to pacify the villagers.
Protests broke out in Srinagar, the region’s main city, with at least three pro-India Kashmiri political parties staging demonstrations against the killings.
Mehbooba Mufti, the region’s former top elected official who was once an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party, said the recent acquittal of an army officer in the killing of three civilians in a staged gunbattle three years ago had “emboldened” the army, “creating a false precedent among the forces that they can operate without restraint.”
In 2020, the Indian army killed three young men from Rajouri in a fake gunfight and portrayed them as Pakistani terrorists. But after an outcry and a police investigation, the Indian military, in a rare admission, acknowledged wrongdoing and said its soldiers exceeded their legal powers granted to them under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
The Indian army’s internal court had sentenced an officer to life imprisonment for the killings. However, a military tribunal in November this year suspended his sentence.
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act gives the Indian military in Kashmir sweeping powers to search, seize and even shoot suspects on sight without fear of prosecution. Under the act, local authorities need federal approval to prosecute erring army or paramilitary soldiers in civilian courts.