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So, is new media only reinforcing old stereotypes?

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Bull said:
Yes pls..go ahead.
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Okay lets start with a few and i will keep adding so that my post is not to long.

Indian Soldiers on a Rape Spree in Tamil Nadu
Usha Ramanathan

When an enemy army occupies conquered territory it is common to hear of soldiers raping local women with no fear of punishment. But Tamil Nadu is not a conquered territory and the Indian army is not an occupation force. Then why are Indian naval personnel, soldiers and Central Reserve Police men stationed in Tamilnadu allowed to rape Tamil women with impunity?

Attempted Rape at Daylight

According to reports, a navy man from the Rameswaram Naval Base tried to rape a local woman taking bath. She cried out. Neighbors rushed to her help and beat the navy man. Though a complaint was filed with the Indian Navy, he was not punished.

Attempted Rape at a Refugee Camp

Here is another incidence involving the Rameswaram Naval Base again. Five drunken navy men, including an officer of the rank of Lieutenant Commander, went to a nearby refugee camp to rape the women there. A brave Tamil watchman at the gate tried to stop them. The Hindi-speaking navy men beat the watchman. The Deputy Collector in charge of the camp came to inquire what was happening. The navy men attacked him also. As more people came to see what was happening, the scared navy men retreated and left the camp. Though a complaint was filed, not a single one of the five culprits was punished.

Attempted Rape at Night

A Central Reserve Police check point is located in Vedaranyam, with 9 central reserve policemen posted there. On of them named Ramkishan (a typical Hindi name) went to the house of a local resident, Mr. Pakkiri Swamy, at night when he was away and tried to rape his wife. She shouted for help. Villagers from nearby houses came and chased him away. Soon he returned with eight other central reserve policemen carrying guns and threatened the villagers. Next day the villagers complained to the local politician and Tamil Nadu police. The matter was taken up with the Central Reserve Police. Ramkishan and the 8 other policemen were transferred to another area. None of them was punished.

If the Indian government cannot stop the soldiers, central reserve policemen and navy men from raping our women, Tamil Nadu state government should ask the Indian government to close down all army, navy, air force and central reserve police bases in Tamil Nadu. If the Indian government believes that such bases in Tamil Nadu are absolutely, positively necessary for the security of India, they should staff these bases in Tamil Nadu exclusively with Tamils. We do not want soldiers raping our women


Indian Army And The Legacy
Of Rape In Manipur


By Shivali Tukdeo


In the Indian narrative of progress and development, the North East has always remained in footnotes. While mainstream media rarely takes notice of the violence caused by Indian Army in the North East, recent outpour of extreme resentment at the military forces did shake both the media and the state as forty Manipuri women --twelve of them naked-- stormed the Army headquarters in Imphal, holding signs that read “Indian Army, Rape Us!” Thanglam Manorama’s brutal murder by Army personnel was the source of anger for the protesters. Manorama’s murder is far from being an exceptional case in Manipur where rape, abuse and murder are everyday realities. In their brave protest, Manipuri women
shamed Indian army by parading the very female body that brought humiliation and death to their sisters. With their raw anger and amazing mobilization, these women refuse to get knocked down by the ‘rape culture’that enables the ‘victor’ to demoralize their victim.

INDIAN ARMY RAPES IN SRI LANKA
(Kanwar Sandhu reporting in the Indian Sunday Observer, December 18-24, 1988)
"After its forces entered Sri Lanka on 30 July, the IPKF was increasingly accused of raping Tamil women and of deliberately killing dozens of unarmed Tamil civilians, among them elderly people, women and children...in several cases there was eye witness evidence that the victims were non combatants shot without provocation...

Several dozen Tamil women, some of whom needed hospital treatment, testified that they were raped by IPKF personnel. A local magistrate in the north reportedly found the IPKF had been responsible for seven cases of rape in December." - Amnesty International Annual Report, 1988 for period January to December 1987

"The Indian Army has court martialled four of its men serving in the Jaffna peninsula for rape, a senior Indian military officer said here yesterday...He also conceded that several complaints of theft had been made against Indian soldiers. 'The Indian army are not angels. We are not devils either. We are just human' Brigadier Kahlon said when pressed for details. 'Rape happens even in the West'." - Sri Lanka Sun, 15 January 1988

"Two Indian soldiers serving in Batticaloa are to be court martialled for rape, authoritative sources in Batticaloa said yesterday... The two soldiers to be court martialled, allegedly raped two girls during a cordon and search operation at Ariyampathi on Friday" - Sri Lanka Sun, 19 January 1988


KASHMIR

At Sheerpora One Shakeela Banoo and her mother were raped by the forces. Shakeela who had delivered a baby recently was also beaten ruthlessly by the forces in the month of March 1994.

On 5-5-94, one girl Jameela D/O Gh. Mohd. Shah R/O Islamabad, was gang raped by Army posted at Khrewah and the locals protested against the barbaric act.

One Shaheena D/O Ab. Aziz R/O Pulwama Tral, was raped by the armed forces on 5-5-94 and the people came on streets to demonstrate against the barbaric act.

At Wanagam Kukarnag, Dewalgam Islamabad, ladies who were collecting fire wood in nearby forest were molested by the forces during crackdown operations on 9-5-94.

At Manigah Kupwara, three ladies were raped during crackdown operations in the house of Shah Khan on 14-5-94. In this regard an FIR stands registered in the Police station concerned and the Dy. Commissioner was also informed about the incident. The locals protested and demonstrated against the brutal act.

At Prang Kngan 4 girls were gang raped by the forces and due to continuous bleeding one girl later died on 14-5-94.

One women was tied with ropes against a tree and she was raped in presence of her minor children at Manigah, Qazi Gund, Islamabad on 15-5-94. She was wife of a hospital employee and when the matter became public, the employees protested against the brutal act committed by the forces.

On 18-5-94, at Dangerpora, Baramulla, one lady namely, Perveena W/O Late Khursheed Ahmad and Mst. Taja, were molested. The locals protested and band was observed in the area against the barbaric act.

On 2-6-94, an attempt to rape one Haseena Banoo D/O GH. Ahmad R/O Harwan, Chandpora, Kupwara, was made by two members of the forces and due to the timely intervention and cry her chastity was saved.

On 8-6-94, forces deployed at Rinawari, Srinagar, during late hours entered the house of one Mst. Mugli W/O Gh. Ahmad and molested her. Due to hue and cry her chastity was saved.

On 28-5-94, at Koil Tral of Pulwama a girl was molested by the forces during crackdown operation. In this regard an FIR stands registered.

At Keller Pulwama, Mst. Ashiys wife of Gul Mohd., wife of Gulzar Ahmad and Suriya W/O Bashir Ahmad, were molested by the forces during crackdown operations on 29-5-94.

At Khushipora, Qazigund, Islamabad, 20 ladies including two pundit girls were molested by the forces on 29-5-94 and forced to dance in a forest when they were collecting fire wood.

On 10-6-94, locals of Saidpora, Shopian came on streets to protest against the gang rape of two girls at the hands of forces.

As per the media reports dated 17-6-94, the forces during late hours on 11/12-6-94, the Army entered into Hyhama, Batapora Kupwara areas headed by Mj. Ramesh and Raj Kumar of Raj Rifles where they gang-raped and molested seven ladies. Names of the ladies gang-rapped are, Mst. Hajra W/O Abdul Ghani, Bakhtawar W/O Gull Mohammad and Sarwara W/O of Alam Beig. The forces also arrested one Number Dar of the locality so that he would not be able to report the matter to the authorities. The forces also molested other ladies and their clothes were torn. The locals next day proteted against the incident.

The Indian Armed Forces molested the wife of one Nazir Ahmad Dar at Aluchabagh, Srinagar on 6-2-93. Two members of the forces during late hours forcibly entered into the house dead drunk under the pretext of search operations with the intention to rape but on making hue and cry the locals of the area raised cries due to this reason the forces did not succeed in their ill design. The next day when a complaint was registered in Police station Sheergari, some officers of the forces and local administration came for on-the-spot inspection and assured the people for taking an action under the law against the culprits. The local Police has not taken any action till date against the culprits and the case is under investigation.

At Trehgam of District Kupwara in the first week of February 1993, at Tangwadi two jawans of the Indian Armed Forces forcibly entered into the house of one Mohd. Ramzan Khan and the husband of the lady, namely Mohd. Ramzan Khan was out of home. The forces raped the poor lady one by one. The poor lady with folded hands requested the brutal forces for not committing such an act as she was pregnant but the brutal forces did not relent. The next day when the matter became public, SP. and D.C. Kupwara, visited the spot. The lady identified the BSF personnel in presence of the officers. They were handed over to the concerned officials of BSF and they simply apologised and assured that action under law will be taken against the culprits.

Three ladies namely Fahmida, Zamrooda and Bitti of village Saida Bani resident of Kulgam, Islamabad were raped by the forces on 27-5-93 (BSF 78 Btn.) during late hours. The forces of the said BSF Btn. entered their houses and raped them in separate rooms. Their mother was confined to the lawn and despite the cries of her daughters, she could not help the innocent girls. Fahmeeda a teen-aged woman having one son, her virgin sister Bitti aged above 15 years and Zamrooda aged 14 years were raped; this matter was reported to the concerned Police station where FIR No: 3 of 1993 P/S Kulgam was registered on 5-6-93. The poor lady was told by the brutal forces that in case it will come to their notice that this incident has been reported to the authorities, they will set her house ablaze and burn them alive. Also her husband namely, Jalla Sheikh was not present on the date of incident and due to the reason that her daughters may earn a bad name, she did not report the matter to the authorities immediately. Their mother Muneera was confined to the lawn. On 12-6-93 the victim ladies were medically examined at Paripora Hospital; the medical report was positive about the gang-rape. On this date the males had left the village. Fehmedia was taken in a room, her clothes torn and then gang raped by many personnel. Biti's were clothes torn and then after beatings raped by forces due to which she fell unconscious. Zamrooda 's breasts were pulled and cheeks kissed and and then raped by the brutal forces. She some how managed to jump from a window and later when the forces had left her mother brought her from a nearby place. The matter is still in the shelves of the authorities and no challan or charge sheet has been presented before the court.

One Mst. Fatima an insane woman was raped by some uniformed persons while she was moving on the road at Lal Bazar, Srinagar. Medical examination of the woman was conducted and the case stands registered with Police Division Lal Bazar, Srinagar. No challan has been presented against anyone as yet.

On 19-9-93 the personal of 19th Regiment Army entered into the house of one Mst. Fatima at village Karna and gang raped. The names of the personal have been reported as Puran Singh Hawaldar, Choty Lal Las Naik and Surinder Singh. The matter was reported to the Police concerned where a case under section 302, 376 and 360 RPC was registered against them. After gang rape the woman died. A charge sheet in this regard was produced before the competent court at Kupwara where these persons applied for bail. But the Sessions Judge, Kupwara refused bail. The local Police officer who had investigated the case namely Shabir Ahmad Shah was transferred as a punitive measure.

On 22.11.93, the forces during crack-down operation at Warplora Sopore gang raped Mst. Sara W/O Mohammad Rajab Genaie; later when the crack-down was lifted, her dead body with head injury and other multipal injuries on various parts of her body was seen in the nearby area. In this regard the people of the area demonstrated and observed strike; also the local Police started investigation under section 174 CrPC. After conducting the post-mortem doctor Rehana and other doctors reported that marks of violence on the neck , extensive vegina tear on left latrel side, vulval edema. Positive signs of rape and her cause of death due to plhysis due to legature pat on neck and constant power applied. In this regard the investigation is still in progress without any arrest of the culprits

One Mst. Saja aged 55 years of village Batengo Bijbeara, Islamabad was raped by the forces on 15-12-93 after the forces cordoned the village and dragged her into a room of her house. The assailants belonged to Rashtariya Rifles. Later, a case was registered in Police station Bijvbeara and is under investigation. Dy. Commissioner Islamabad is said to have written a note to Divisional Commissioner under No: D/C/Camp dated 17-12-93 wherein he has mentioned that Mst. Saja of Awarihal Gundi Hajnipora was medically examined and the report indicates that she had been raped.

At Gundi Banihal of Doda district Jammu, Two ladies Sada and Hassina were molested and raped by the forces in the month of December 1993 when the forces after a hand grenade attack cordoned off the area under the pretext of search operations. One person was also arrested.

On 10-7-91, one lady Shara Khatoon an employee in a private firm "Ansari Motors' Zero-Bridge, SGR., was raped by three armed personnel during late hours. When her brother tried to save her from the hands of the forces, he was beaten. He managed to jump through a window due to which his arm was fractured. In this connection an F.I. R has been registered in Police Station Kothibagh, Sgr.

On 26/27-91, during crackdown operations at at Kalaroos, Kupwara, woman folk were molested by the forces.

In Arizal Berwa, Badgham District four ladies were raped by the forces during search operations on 12-8-91.

On 3-9-91, at Safanagri, Neloora, the forces entered into the houses of the helpless ladies and raped two ladies.

On 17-10-91, wife of one Gulla Gani R/O Arigham, Badgham was raped by the forces and when she made hue and cry, the forces shot her died.

On 25-9-91, two army personnel raped an Australian lady, namely, Hadeson at Ladakh; later she reported the matter to the local Police and after the registration of case, the victim identified the culprits.

On 18-11-91, one woman was raped by the soldiers of 142 B.N (B.S.F.) at Islamabad. On investigating the lady identified one soldier Jawan namely, Bomic.

In Hilar Bahi Village of Islamabad District on 5-12-91, the forces cordoned off a number of villages and started indiscriminate firing due to which 20 persons were injured and out of 20 persons five were seriously injured and two persons killed. The forces entered into the houses of the locals and raped four married ladies, including a six months pregnant lady, who later reported the matter to District Authorities Islamabad. An F.I.R has been registered in P/S Dooru Islamabad, which is under investigation. The ladies were medically examined, which established the fact that the said ladies had been raped. The forces in order to harass the people set ablaze 46 houses. After two days of incidents the pregnant lady gave birth to a dead child. Due to the threat of the forces ladies of the locality took shelter in the house of one Gh.Qadir Rather after the forces started setting ablaze the houses of the innocent people. One married lady was dragged out of a room in the said house and on gun point taken to third floor of the building where she was raped by a Sikh armed personnel.The poor lady tried her best to save her chastity but the brutal forces did not pay any heed to her request. She requested them not to commit any inhuman act because she was pregnant but the armed personnel raped her. An another lady aged about 25 was taken into the second floor of the same house and was raped by one more armed personnel. The poor lady offered her wrist watch as a bribe for not committing the inhuman act but the armed personnel raped her and other armed personnel were standing as watchmen on the door.The forces later took the said wrist watch along with them. An another lady who had come to save her house and movable goods was raped in her own house. One more lady who had also came from the field to save her valuables in the houses which the forces had set ablaze, was also raped by the forces. The whole area was under seige for number of days. Later few voluntarily organizations including local journalists, visited the area confirming the incident. A Band was observed in whole of the valley for one day as a mark of protest against the inhuman acts of the forces. Their are number of F.I.R.'s lodged in different Police stations of the state against the forces in which no action has been taken so far by the local Police. The government authorities and their stooges are deliberately avoiding to hand over the paramilitary forces wanted in the said F.I.R.'s. The local Police is helpless. On 8-1-92, the Governor in a press conference which was later reported in the local news papers on 9-1-92, admitted the incident of rape. The people believe that the Government of India is doing all this under a plan to suppress the people with the sole intention that the people of State will give up their the demand of freedom.

On 27-12-91, the forces entered into the a house of Gh. Mohd R/O Shilwat, Baramulla and failed in their attempt to rape his wife, on the intervention of her husband. The forces while leaving the house fired at him and he received bullet injuries on his arm

At Pulwama three ladies namely, Zooni, Mehtaba and Ashia residents of Malun, Pulwama were molested by the forces on 3-1-94 during the crackdown operations.

At Pattan Mst. Shahzada W/O Gh. Ahmad Khanday was gang raped by three jawans of Raj Rifles during search operations in her house on 13-1-94. In this connection the people demonstrated and an FIR was lodged against the personnel in the concerned Police station Pattan.

At. Bijbehara Pazwalpora, four ladies, namely, Saleema, Shah Mali, Wazira Mir and Rafiqa a minor girl were raped and molested by the forces during crackdown operations before some days of Bijbehara incident and the matter was reported to the concerned Police but till date the culprits have not been brought to book.

At Bahu, Gund and Sheikh Mohalla of Shopian of Pulwama district eight ladies namely, Shakeela 14 years, Saleema 13 years, Fathehma 13 years, Mukhti 26 years, Zeeba 45 years, Khatija 43 years, Khatija 55 years, Haleema 20 years were raped and molested by the forces of Rastria Rifle Jawans on 3-2-94 during crackdown operations in the area. One Shahzada said that four ladies were taken to the house of Gaffar Shah's house and four ladies to Hassan Sheikh's house by the forces. The male members were taken out for identification parade. She was raped three times by the forces. W/O Gh. Hassan R/O Mallapora was also raped by the forces according to a medical examination in the district hospital. One officer called Major Gill who was heading the forces said that he will marry them with his forces. There were multiple injuries on the chests of ladies. The leg of one minor boy namely, Bashir Ahmad was fractured due to the ruthless beatings of the forces. Number of persons, namely, Ab. Gani Mir, Noor Mohd., Nazir Aga, Ab. Gani Wani, Imtiyaz Aga, Manzoor Mir, Jahangeer Ahmad and Noor Mohd were arrested by the forces. In this connection an FIR No. 7/94 U/O 302 in P/S Shopian stands registered on 3-2-94.

At Tulla Mulla, Srinagar, the forces molested 4 ladies on 16-2-94 during crackdown operations and one lady due to extra bleeding was admitted in Lal Deed Hospital for treatment.

At Badgam Khriwan Mallapora two ladies Shakeela W/O Gh. Hassan Najar aged 26 years mother of three kids was raped by the forces in a room of her house on 17-2-94 during crackdown operations after a hand granade attack. Most of the villagers left the area as they knew that forces will cordon the area but she, her three minor children and her old aged father-in-law could not leave. Her father-in-law was beaten ruthlessly, her children were also given ruthless beatings and she was taken in a room and gang-raped. She was later medically examined and matter reported to the concerned Police.

One Mst. Hajra actively resident of Bihar, had married 8 years back Gull Mohd. Sheikh at Wanabahoo Islamabad. She has a 7 years daughter and on the day of incident her husband was there. She was ill and she was molested in her compound; she later died and the happening known to her were also buried with her. Three more girls, namely, Sheeraza, Mehmooda and Sakeena daughters of Gh. Nabi Matoo residents of Wanapoo, Islamabad, were also molested by the forces during crackdown operations and an attempt was made to rape them but their brother namely, Gulzar Ahmad Shah did not allow the forces to do so and was beaten ruthlessly. Mehmooda fell unconscience and the force also looted an amount of seven thousand during search.

Two girls namely, Mst. Hamida Akhtar and Sameena 20 years old, unmarried daughters of Gh. Mohi-Ud-Din residents of Wachi Anchi Doora, Islamabad; the forces during crackdown operations after beatings kept them in one room on 25-2-94. When their mother cried and made efforts to save them, she was locked in the other room and her two daughters were raped by the forces. Their brother Syeed Ahmad Pandith was taken into custody. The forces also molested the ladies in the house of one Ab. Gaffar on the same date.

on 1-3-94, the forces entered the house of one Ab. Ahad Ganiee R/O Sikhreg, Ganiee Mohalla, Badgam and molested 4 ladies and and their attempt to rape was foiled due to their cries. Mst. Taja and her daughter were later hospitalized. In this regard protest demonstrations were made by the locals and employees.

On 20-3-94, the forces entered into the villages Khudwani Islamabad and started beating the locals. One Lady aged about 20 years namely, Dilshada Akhter R/O Khudwani was molested by the forces during crackdown operations and in this regard a report was lodged in the concerned Police station.

On 5-1-92, the forces during late hours entered in a house at Barbar-Shah, Srinagar and committed rape. When it came in the press that an old lady who was mentally upset, has been raped, the public was moved and condemnation came from all quarters. In this regard an F.I.R. stands registered in concerned Police station. After an F.I.R. was registered, the lady was sent to hospital for medical examination; the medical report confirmed the rape.

On 13-1-92, at Tul Bugh, Sopore of District Baramulla, the forces entered in to the house of one Gh. Mohd. Bhat and, in the absence of male members, forcibly tried to rape a lady. But upon hue and cry raised by the said lady, the locals came out and forces fired some bullets in air and ran away. The locals later came out in a procession. An F.I.R. for attempt to rape stands registered in the concerned Police station.

On 1st August, 1992, two British girls (sisters in relation) namely MS. Stevenson Jenet and Stevenson Joane bearing passport numbers 731038/92 Tv. 324663/92 and 1630668, Tv. 32463/92 respectively went on a Shikara Tour through river Jehlum which passes through the main city. These ladies had arrived at srinagar on 31-7-92. They left in the morning, along with two boatman and a guide. On reaching near Zainakadal bridge located in downtown city, the forces stopped them and took them in a houseboat along with the two sikara drivers and guide. The forces had in a routine matter cordoned off the area under the pretext of search operations. As reported the forces asked them to lie down as the militants were just to attack on them. The forces took the two sikara drivers and guide to some unknown place. When the two sister's asked the forces to leave them as they were tourists, nobody would listen . Then the forces attempted to rape them but as per the ladies, they managed to escape when they jumped into the sikara which was nearby . The people came for their rescue and a pressman namely Qaiser Mirza also interviewed them. When the news came to public and the pressman in an interview on Voice of America heard the news, the government came with a handout that no molestation of these two young ladies has taken place and it was reported in the press that in the army handout the ladies had manipulated the story at the behest of militants in order to defame the forces. In this connection an F.I.R No. 168/92 U/S 376/511 and 354 stands registered in P/S M.R.Gunj, which is pending investigation. In our previous report one lady journalist was raped by the National security Guard Personnel and a final charge sheet had been presented against those culprits as reported. The Government authorities said that one person namely Mohd. Ayub Badyari who was the guide in the sikara, was declared as a Pakistan Trained Militant. The government has everything in their own hands in order to declare a person as a militant or an innocent but after their goal is over. A person after arrest is released half-dead due to the third degree torture and that released person may or may not recover is a question of luck. The government played a master card in order to avoid humiliation at the hands of world community, when they declared M.Ayub. Badyari as militant and the poor , innocent person is still in custody. The two ladies cancelled their tour and left the valley next day. Now they are in their own country and truth can be ascertained form them.

At Batakote, Handwara of district Kupwara, the forces had been attacked at Achkote about two kilometers away from the place of incident. The forces had suffered some causality; the forces in order to take revenge, entered the area, and dragged out the locals out of their houses. When the innocent old aged people wanted to inquire about the behavior, the forces fired on the young people. The brutal forces entered into a house and killed three women who tried to intervene after their kiths and kins were shot at by the forces. The forces molested and raped four ladies. When the people came to know about the incident, a number of human right activists and journalists reached the spot and in this connection a case was already registered in the concerned Police station. The lady victims were referred to a doctor for examination in order to ascertain the presence of semen and marks of violence on the victims. The case is under investigation and the local Police in almost in all the cases which have been registered against the forces, have not proceeded under law because of the helplessness better known to the them.

On the intervening night of 10/11-10-92, the forces entered into the village of Cheek-E-Saidpora, Shopian in district Pulwama, under the pretext of search operations and asked all the male members to assemble at a particular place for identification purposes. The forces in absence of the male members forcibly raped an 11 years minor girl and five other ladies. On hue and cry of the ladies, the forces were compelled to lift the cordon and the people after entering the homes were narrated the tailful story by the female folk. When the news came known to the public, some of the human right activists went to the spot and were first stopped by the forces but later they entered the village. The victims were taken to hospital for medical check-ups; a lady doctor Safia after medical examination gave a statement that there were positive signs of rape and on the minor girl marks of violence were also seen. This examination was done in presence of Dr. Bashir Ahmad and Dr. A.N.Butt. One lady had given birth of child just some months back. One Doctor namely Dulat Hussain has been arrested by the forces and his whereabouts are not yet known. His mother has complained that he has not returned home after the arrest and all doctors have a reasonable belief that the government is deliberately causing harassment to the doctors to stop them giving honest opinion.

On 24-12-92, one shepherd lady was raped by the Indian Armed Forces (BSF) and after registering a complaint in the concerned Police station at Uri of District Baramulla, some jawans of BSF reportedly kidnapped including her kids and husband. The forces have been continuously harassing the people during crackdowns in case somebody complains against them before the authorities.

Chanapora - 7-3-90 CRPF personnel raided the house in the locality-one woman aged 24 years was taken out of the kitchen and raped by 20 CRPF personnels. Another woman was also raped . Two minor girls of the age of 14 and 16 were molested.

Badasgam Village - During the intervening night of 17/18th May,1990, bus #1317 carrying 27 persons holding valid permission from BSF, of a marriage party, was stopped near Badasgam village, district Islamabad crossing about 23.30 hours by BSF patrolling party . The BSF personnel opened indiscriminate firing upon the bus. M. Abdullah S/O Gani Malik R/O Lisser died instantaneously. Bridegroom and eight other persons accompanying him received injuries. Bride and her chamber-maid were gang raped by the BSF personnel . The bride was taken away by them leaving behind chamber-maid and subsequently released after 48 hours . The bus was removed to district Police lines; it had seventy-eight bullet-hole marks. A case was duly registered in the concerned Police station and an inquiry was conducted by the then DIG Kashmir and a medical report also obtained duly proved the lady was raped. However despite the assurances given by the Government from time to time for taking necessary action against the culprits, Government authorities have failed to bring the culprits on record. The normal trend of the Government during these years is to hide the atrocities committed by the Indian armed and paramilitary forces in order to dodge the Amenesty International and the world Human Rights Organizations. This normal trend of dodging is still continuing.

PANZGAM DISTRICT PULWAMA - One woman during serch operations at Panzgam was raped on 9.6.1990 at 7P.M by the Army personal. Males were tied to a tree and a 18 year-old unmarried girl was gang-raped by the forces.

One woman who had delivered a baby only 30 days earlier was gang-raped by the Army and Paramilitary Forces.

A lady was raped by the armed forces of 268 Bn. In this episode 48 personal were involved including an officer.

On 14-6-90, 68th Mountain Brigade while combing operations at Threggam, Haigam and Dalipora, molested young ladies and a daughter of one person was subjected to rape. Her body was found full of bruises, flesh of left cheek had been carved-out and the woman folk was compelled to be nude.

On 17-6-90, 68Bn Mountain Brigade during crack-down, raped one lady and the act was carried out by six Army Personnel in her own house. The poor girl tried to commit suicide after the brutal attack and has lost her mental balance.

On the same date i.e 17-6-90, young ladies were molested and the daughter of one inhabitant in order to save her chastity jumped from the 2nd story; both her legs were fractured and had to be given a plaster cast.

On 22-6-90, at Panzipora, one young girl was forcibly made nude, assaulted and compelled to make a nude parade in the village. During this process, Army Personal were scratching flesh from her nude body.

On 17-6-90, scores of women were molested by the Army Personal. Markes of tooth bites were visible on the cheeks of the women. Their clothes were torn and forced into nude.

On 17-6-90, B.S.F. personnel entered into houses, compelled males to come out of their houses and forcibly raped two ladies at their residence. Again on the same date, at Machter, Chokibal, a couple was arrested and taken to Army camp. Husband was tied and his wife was subjected to rape by six Army personnel. Again on the same date, wife of one person was raped in presence of her husband. Again on the same date, one woman was compelled to take off her cloths in presence of her father. The poor girl was subjected to rape by a number of Army personnel and was left unconscious in a nude condition. Father of the girl was beaten severely and his arm was fractured.

On 19-5-90 at Ladervan, one young girl was hanged up side down for four hours on a tree. She was given electric shocks due to which she became unconscious.On recovery, again she was beaten severely. The body of the girl was full of bruises and has lost her mental balance. On the same date, one woman mother of four kids was physically tortured and molested . She was hanged upside down on a tree and then locked in a room where she was given electric shocks and later she was left, believing her dead. Again on the same date, a woman was physically tortured. Cigarette burns were visible on her body and was also subjected to electric shocks.

LAL-BAZAR,SRINAGAR - Three unmarried daughters of one respectable family were picked-up by the Indian Armed Forces to Cantonment Area, Srinagar. They were released after two nights, after being subjected to sexual assault. They were released after lot of persuasion by the Director General of Police J&K.

ISLAMIA COLLEGE, SRINAGAR - One girl, while she was walking during the period of curfew relaxation was forcibly taken into college premises by the Paramilitary forces and released after two nights during which period she was subjected to sexual assault. It should be pointed out that the College was being used as a picket and an interrogation center by the forces.

WADVAN DISTRICT BADGAM - In this District 14 women were gang-raped by the Army and other Paramilitary forces on the intervening night of 25/26June,1990. One of them died at S.M.H.S Hospital, Srinagar(Emergency Ward) on 11-7-90.

HANDWARA DISTRICT KUPWARA - 12-7-90, B.S.F Personal cordoned off four villages Chogal for search. This also included the village Saghipora. They ordered all inhabitants to come out of their houses except females between 16 to 22 years age group. They then entered their houses and raped 12 girls.

In the month of August,1990, one Chowkidar along with his daughter was going to village Chokibal, Kupwara District; six army personnels tied the father of the lady against a tree and raped her.

In village Lushhat, Kupwara, which is close to the line of actual control, a sixteen year old girl and her mother were raped by the forces in the month of August,1990. The District authorities went to the spot immediately after the incident and recorded the statement of witnesses and made the inspection The officers reported the matter to the Divisional Commissioner Srinagar for taking necessary action under law against the culprits involved in the rape incident. The government transferred the officer to some other place, in order to punish him for reporting the matter for action.


Theres a few to get you started
 
thanks.....'Indian soldiers allowed to rape in TN'...wow.....!!!
 
dabong1 said:
Oooohh so when it upsets you its flamebait and when its the other way round you want to bring free speech into it.
You can call the freedom fighters scum but i can not call the indian army in kashmir scum......... INDIAN ARMY IN KASHMIR IS SCUM FREE SPEECH :cheers:
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can never get as scum as terrorist supporting PA
 
Adux said:
can never get as scum as terrorist supporting PA
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ooh...how about staging fake encounters for medals? and raping innocent women and girls? mass murdering? conducting state terrorism??? IA is not even worthy to be called scum....it will be a disgrace to the word "scum"...
 
d2efdd16b07cc2d41d6cf7fc8bb5faac.jpg
 
India 'admits to Kashmir abuses

A US-based human rights group says the Indian army has admitted to killing militants as a matter of policy.

The Human Rights Watch report on the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir also criticises the militants and Pakistan for abetting violence.The report says the situation in Kashmir has improved over the past two years, but it is still severe.Since 1989 when militancy began in Kashmir, the report says more than 50,000 people have been killed.

'Summary executions'
Releasing the 156-page report, Everyone Lives in Fear, the Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, said extrajudicial executions by Indian security forces were common.
"Police and army officials have told Human Rights Watch that security forces often execute alleged militants instead of bringing them to trial in the belief that keeping hardcore militants in detention is a security risk," he said.

"Most of those summarily executed are falsely reported to have died during armed clashes between the army and the militants," he added.Mr Adams said the immunity given to security force personnel deployed in Kashmir encourages them to commit violations.

"It is absurd that the world's largest democracy, with a well-developed legal system and internationally-recognised judiciary, has laws on its books that prevent members of its security forces from being prosecuted for human rights abuses," he said.

Critical of militants
Human Rights Watch is also critical of the militants who are fighting Indian rule for attacking civilians."Indian security forces claim they are fighting to protect Kashmiris from militants and Islamic extremists, while militants claim they are fighting for Kashmiri independence and to defend Muslim Kashmiris from an abusive Indian army," says the report.It adds that, "in reality, both sides have committed widespread and numerous human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law."

The report says the militants "have attacked religious minorities such as Hindus and Sikhs as well as ethnic minorities such as the Gujjars whom they believe to be government informers".
Many of the militant groups currently operating in Kashmir have become increasingly unpopular, says the report. But, it adds, "the people are afraid to speak out against them."

'Pakistan backing militants'
Pakistan's role also came in for criticism.There is considerable evidence that over many years Pakistan has provided Kashmiri militants with training, weapons, funding and sanctuary," Mr Adams said.

The report says that under pressure from the US after the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001, Pakistan has banned some militant groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba.But these groups continue to operate after changing their names, says the report.

Mr Adams says the militants and their backers must end the bombings and the targeting of civilians."Continued abuses ensure that the cycle of violence will continue. And these abuses only add to the suffering of the people in whose name the militants are ostensibly fighting." he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5338158.stm
 
akzaman said:
India 'admits to Kashmir abuses

A US-based human rights group says the Indian army has admitted to killing militants as a matter of policy.
Click to expand...

Well two lines say two different stories.
 
International report documents repression in Indian-controlled Kashmir

By Parwini Zora and Daniel Woreck

A recent report by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) documents the systematic human rights abuses carried out by the Indian security forces in the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the protection of the Indian government and legal system.

HRW conducted research for the report, entitled "Everyone Lives in Fear: Patterns of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir," from 2004 to February 2006 in Indian-controlled Kashmir. It was the first time since 1989 that the Indian government had allowed an international human rights body to visit and report on the state. HRW also conducted research in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in 2005 and 2006.

The report provides detailed accounts and interviews implicating the Indian security forces in torture, disappearances, arbitrary detentions and summary executions, which are concealed as "encounter killings".

The report stressed that the estimated 700,000 Indian soldiers and paramilitaries in Kashmir carry out widespread repression with impunity. Indian laws protect members of the armed forces and civilian officials involved in crimes against Kashmiris. Soldiers responsible for murders and torture are rarely investigated or held accountable for their crimes.

The Asian director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, told the press in September: "Human rights abuses have been a cause as well as a consequence of the insurgency in Kashmir.... Kashmiris continue to live in constant fear because perpetrators of abuses are not punished. Unless the Indian authorities address the human rights crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, a political settlement of the conflict will remain illusory."

The report also covers in significant detail the massacres, bombings and political killings committed by various armed groups opposed to Indian rule of Kashmir. While HRW equates the violence of the Indian military and that of the militants, the outbreak of the armed conflict in the late 1980s resulted from decades of oppressive, anti-democratic Indian rule of the majority Muslim state.

The continuing conflict in Kashmir underlines the inherently reactionary character of the 1947 partition of British India into the current Muslim Pakistan and a Hindu-dominated India. The division of the subcontinent along artificial boundaries that cut across national, ethnic and language groupings laid the groundwork for future conflicts and wars that resulted in some 2 million deaths, turned millions more into refugees and divided the Kashmiri region into Indian and Pakistani-held areas.

Subsequently, successive Indian governments have proved incapable of meeting the aspirations of the Kashmiri Muslims for genuine democratic rights and decent living standards. Seeking to ensure Indian domination over Kashmir, the Indian elite rescinded an agreement to give more autonomy to the state. Kashmiris began to take up arms in the late 1980s after the Indian government blatantly rigged state elections in Jammu and Kashmir

Since 1989, at least 20,000 Kashmiri civilians have been killed as a result of the armed conflict and tens of thousands more have been injured according to the HRW report. About 300,000 Hindu Kashmiris have been internally displaced and another 30,000 Muslim Kashmiris have fled to neighbouring Pakistan as refugees.

The report cited evidence of summary killings of suspected militants. Police and army officials told HRW that detained suspects were often executed rather than being brought to jail, on the grounds that "keeping hardcore militants in gaol is a security risk". The deaths were often falsely recorded as the result of "encounter killings". One example was the case of five men shot supposedly in an armed "encounter". While the army and police claimed the men were responsible for the massacre of 36 Kashmiri Sikhs in 2000, forensic tests later showed the men to be innocent local villagers.

Indian security forces have extensive powers under the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act to use lethal force against anyone "who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area". The report cited an incident on February 23, 2006 in which soldiers in Handawara shot at a group of people playing cricket because they suspected that a Kashmiri separatist was among them. Four boys, including an eight-year-old, were killed.

Kashmiri human rights defenders estimate that over 8,000 Kashmiris have simply "disappeared" since 1989. Most were last seen in the custody of Indian troops, who in turn denied holding the person. Many were tortured and then executed.

One case involved Manzoor Ahmed Mir, a 37-year-old state employee. A group of soldiers accompanied by three masked men took him away on September 12, 2004. Manzoor's brother recognised the men as a police sub-inspector, with whom Manzoor had quarrelled, and the sub-inspector's two sons. Manzoor's family filed a habeas corpus petition in the Srinigar High Court but by February 2006 the police and army had not responded.

The HRW report stated that thousands of Kashmiris have been arbitrarily and illegally detained. One of India's Additional Advocate Generals recently stated there were 4,500 suspected militants awaiting trial in jail. Many have been held for 10 years or more without being brought before a court. Indian authorities often detain Kashmiris under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, which allows for detention without trial for up to two years, because they have no evidence of guilt.

Many people have been detained beyond two years by simply rolling over preventative detention orders. Amnesty International reported on the case of Farooq Ahmad Dar, who was detained in November last year under his ninth consecutive PSA order. He has been in continuous detention since 1991.

Based on information from Mian Abdul Qayoom, president of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, HRW reported that individuals had filed at least 60,000 habeas corpus petitions since 1990 to contest detentions or "disappearances". However, according to HRW, there are few, if any, cases in which "officials have been held responsible for failing to respond in a timely manner to a court order in a habeas corpus case or for failing to release a detainee pursuant to a court order in Jammu and Kashmir".

Those in state custody are commonly tortured. "Relatives of militants are also taken into custody and tortured, either to discover the whereabouts of a suspect, or as a way of forcing the militant to surrender," the report stated. The brother of a wanted Kashmiri told HRW that Indian forces had beaten him and given him electric shocks while in custody to try to force his brother to surrender. The torture only stopped when soldiers killed his brother.

Legal immunity
Most cases of serious human rights abuse in the Jammu and Kashmir region are not officially investigated. In the rare instances where abuses are probed, there has not been a single individual in the Indian army, paramilitary or the police convicted of a criminal offence. In fact, since 1989 only 134 army personnel, 79 members of the Border Security Force and 60 policemen have been subjected to "disciplinary action".

There is no civilian control over the proceedings of the military justice system. In addition, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of 1973 protect any member of the armed forces from arrest for "anything done or purported to be done by him in the discharge of his official duties except after obtaining the consent of the central government".

Section 197(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code is a sweeping immunity provision that applies throughout India. In the words of the HRW report, this code "makes it mandatory for a prosecutor to obtain permission from the federal government to initiate criminal proceedings against public servants, including armed forces personnel". According to Amnesty International, the Jammu and Kashmir government had made almost 300 requests for permission to prosecute last year, but none were granted.

Security forces have used the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act to justify firing indiscriminately on peaceful demonstrations, including protests in January and October 1990 in Srinagar and in 1993 in Beijbehara.

The HRW report is one more account of the widespread and sustained use of repression for over a decade in Jammu and Kashmir. There is no reason to believe that the current Congress-led government in New Delhi will take any more notice of its recommendations than any of the previous calls for justice.
The report underscores the fact that in India, which is commonly referred to as the world's largest democracy, the systematic abuse of basic democratic rights is widespread.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/kash-n30.shtml
 
akzaman, thankyou for all you sources regarding the atrocities commited by the IA in IOK. You seem to be unaware of the human rights abuses by the PA in waziristan and balochistan.
 
imiakhtar said:
akzaman, thankyou for all you sources regarding the atrocities commited by the IA in IOK. You seem to be unaware of the human rights abuses by the PA in waziristan and balochistan.
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SHHHHH, those are not be spoken, "They never happened"
 
VIOLATIONS BY INDIAN GOVERNMENT FORCES:ABUSES BY UNIFORMED INDIAN SECURITY PERSONNEL

Extrajudicial Executions and Reprisal Killings

The systematic, summary execution of suspected militants by regular Indian forces in Kashmir has been a hallmark of counterinsurgency operations in the conflict. After escalating sharply in 1992-93, when military authorities in Kashmir launched a "catch-and-kill" operation against the militants, these killings have only declined to the extent that some have been subcontracted to irregular state-sponsored forces. There has been no change in policy about the practice. Army and BSF forces have continued to execute captured militant suspects routinely, in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. In six and a half years of war, such executions and disappearances in Kashmir number well into the hundreds, if not higher.

Most extrajudicial killings carried out by Indian security forces in Kashmir occur after "crackdowns"— cordon and search operations during which all the men of a neighborhood or village are called to assemble for an identification parade in front of hooded informers. Those whom the informers point out are taken away for torture and interrogation, and some are simply taken away and shot. Officials in Kashmir routinely claim that the detainee was killed in an "encounter" with the security forces, or was shot trying to escape. Human rights groups in Kashmir have documented hundreds of such killings . In its annual report covering events of 1995, the U.S. State Department stated that "[H]uman rights groups consider credible reports that dozens of such killings occur every month."58 Detainees have also disappeared in the custody of the security forces.

Since 1994, there have been fewer incidents in which government forces engaged in reprisal killings of civilians or used lethal force on a large scale against peaceful demonstrators. However, incidents in which the security forces have opened fire on civilians during crackdowns have continued. In the two cases described below, those who were shot were clearly identified as civilians. As with other summary executions, the authorities generally claim that civilian casualties during such operations result from "cross-fire."

Security legislation has increased the likelihood of such abuses by authorizing the security forces to shoot to kill and to destroy civilian property. Under these laws, the security forces are protected from prosecution for human rights violations.59

The Killing of Mohammad B. and Sheikh Y.

On January 20, 1995, Indian army forces of the 2nd Grenades unit conducted a crackdown in Batmaloo, Srinagar. At least two men taken into custody by the soldiers were summarily executed. Ghulam B., forty-eight, described the killing of his brother, Mohammad, a forty-two-year-old businessman.
At about 10:00 am on January 20, 1995, I was in my house in Batmaloo, Srinagar, along with my mother and father, Mohammad and his wife and children, and a servant. Mohammad was on the phone to Delhi when we heard gunfire outside, and we all went into a single room. Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Four uniformed army soldiers of the 2nd Grenades came inside and pulled my ninety-year-old father, Mohammad, the servant and me outside. The soldiers were accusing us of being "terrorists." They accused Mohammad of being Afghan.

Leaving the father at the house, the soldiers took the men with them, along with a nephew, G. Some twenty-five soldiers were gathered around outside. They ordered the men to get shovels and shovel snow for half an hour. Then four of the soldiers took Ghulam and broke down the door of a nearby house belonging to Ghulam's uncle. Ghulam and Mohammad were made to search some six other houses; the soldiers were looking for guns and militants.60 The search went on for half an hour. Ghulam told Human Rights Watch:

From time to time, the soldiers would hit me and point their guns at my head and tell me they would kill me. Several times while I was with soldiers, they came under gunfire [from militant forces] and they would force me to stand in front of them as they ran and returned fire.

At 11:30am, the soldiers completed the searches of six houses and took Ghulam to a more populated neighborhood in the same area. At that point, he saw the soldiers take Mohammad away. An announcement was made through the loudspeakers at the mosque that everyone in the area should come out of their houses and assemble outside the graveyard. Ghulam continued to search apartments in the area with the soldiers and six other civilians.

At about 4:00 pm Ghulam was with the soldier when they again came under heavy gunfire. The soldiers fired back, again using him as shield. A number of soldiers were injured in the fire, and Ghulam and other civilians were ordered to carry the wounded soldiers to army vehicles at the main intersection. As they began to do so, one of the civilians, Hassan Shah, a retired policeman who was over sixty, was shot in the arm.

We asked permission to carry Shah to the SMHS hospital, half a kilometer way, on foot and by auto rickshaw. Mohinder Singh, commander of the 2nd Grenades, allowed us to do so. I ran away to mysister's house and phoned my mother. She asked me, "Where is your brother? I told her I did not know. I stayed at my sister's house that night.

The crackdown was on a Friday. On Saturday, in Nagerwal, residents reported that two bodies had been thrown out of the window of a nearby school at 4:00 pm on the day of the crackdown, and that the bodies were riddled with bullets.

On Saturday, Ghulam went to the Ram Munshi Bagh police station and found Mohammad's body.61 He described the condition of the body:

There was blood around the mouth and blood on his hands. There were two other bodies there as well. I asked for the body back, and the police had me sign a paper for it.

A neighbor, Sheikh A., was with Mohammad after the soldiers took him away. He told Human Rights Watch that the soldiers came to his house and ordered him and his nineteen-year-old son, Sheikh Y., to come with them.

At 9:00am I was in my house with my wife, son and daughter. Sheikh Y. went outside to buy some food, but returned to say that the army was nearby. All of us went upstairs to the second floor. The soldiers knocked on the door, entered the house and yelled for all of us to come downstairs or we would be killed. The soldiers took me and my son outside and took us in the direction of the government middle school in Lachmanpara, which is commonly used as an interrogation center during crackdowns. Before we arrived at the school, the soldiers told me to go to the graveyard nearby. I went and found twenty-five or thirty other people sitting there. I could hear the soldiers questioning my son. They were accusing him of firing on soldiers. My son denied it. Then a soldier took him inside the school. As I sat in the graveyard, I could hear cries from my son inside the school. I stood up, but Mohammad, who was with him in the graveyard, warned me to sit down, as the soldiers were nervous and might shoot me.

A short while later, the soldiers came up with an informer who surveyed the group of men seated at the graveyard, then pointed at Mohammad and said to the soldiers, "Take him, he is a militant." The soldiers told Mohammad to stand up and called him an "Afghani [sic] militant." Mohammad told them he had a grinding machine and was a businessman, not a militant. The soldiers took him into the school. Then the soldiers took Sheikh A. and the others in the graveyard and made them sit in snow. They were kept at the graveyard until 9:00 pm

In the afternoon some people were taken from the cemetery and were made to carry metal pipes. When they were brought back to the cemetery, they told Sheikh A. that the soldiers had used the pipes to spray kerosene on the mosque in the area, which the soldiers had then burned down. Later in the afternoon, Sheikh A. was also made to carry pipes, and he saw the mosque burning. Then he was brought back to the cemetery. At 9:00 pm the men were allowed to go home. Sheikh A. returned with a gas lamp to search inside the school, but was unable to find anyone. Later that night a neighbor told him that two bodies had been thrown from one of the school's windows. He examined the site and found blood on the snow nearby but no bodies. Later that night, at Jammu and Kashmir, he learned from a police officer that three civilians from Batmaloo had been killed earlier that day in "crossfire" between the army and the militants. Sheikh A. told Human Rights Watch/Asia:

The following day, in the morning, I went to the police station at Ram Munshi Bagh, but I was told that the bodies were not there, but were at the Joint Interrogation Center, Sonawar. I went there, but they were not there. I went back to the police station where I saw trucks with the bodies of my son, Mohammad and a third man. After that I went to the police station to file an FIR against the army for the deaths of my son and Mohammad. But I was told by a friend, who is a police officer, that he hadbeen told not to accept any FIRs against the army or security forces. Then I went to the district magistrate, who ordered the police to accept the FIR. So the police registered the FIR on February 7, 1995.

The Killing of Ghulam Ahmed Bhat

Ghulam Ahmed Bhat, eighteen, was killed by troops of the Seventh Battallion of the BSF on December 21, 1995. As a result of a childhood illness, Ghulam had been unable to hear or speak since he was four years old.

At about 10:00am on December 21, Ghulam was standing in a lane in front of the house in Bulbulankar, Nawakadal, in Srinagar, along with his mother and a number of other people. The neighborhood was unusually crowded because a procession was planned in honor of Kurshid Ahmed Bhat, chief of the Al Jihad Force who was killed on December 17, 1995.62 A crackdown was just beginning, and BSF troops from the Seventh Battallion, under Commander "Peter" Sharma, entered the neighborhood. Seeing the BSF soldiers running, Ghulam started to run and his mother ran after him to protect him.

After running along a long, narrow lane, Ghulam stopped and tried to show the soldiers that he was deaf and ****. Then he started running again. Ghulam's mother told Human Rights Watch/Asia:

Three soldiers came after him, and one fired a machine gun burst, killing him. One soldier then kicked the body to make sure he was dead. I began crying, but the soldiers would not allow me to take Ghulam's body. About half an hour after he was shot, two or three BSF soldiers came to the area. One put a pistol on Ghulam's chest; and the other one put bullets in the pocket of his pheran. At 2:00pm, the crackdown was lifted, and the Jammu and Kashmir police arrived. They screamed at the BSF that the boy was not a militant and that they should not have killed him.

The police took the body to the police station. At 5:00pm, the body was brought home by neighbors. There was a bullet wound in the back of the head. At the time the body was handed over from police, the mother's brother, Mohammad Siddiq, was made to sign a blank paper. The next morning, two shopkeepers and a neighbor came to the mother's house and said they were coming on behalf of Commander "Peter" Sharma and said that he would pay her Rs. 200,000 not to bring a case against the BSF in court. She did not accept, and filed a case against the BSF.

The Killing of Khurshid Ahmed Bhat

Khurshid Ahmed Bhat, alias "Khalid Javeed," former head of Jihad Force, was killed after being taken into custody by BSF forces on December 18, 1995. At 9:30pm, a patrol party of several BSF vehicles came to the neighborhood of Butyar, in Srinagar. From his upstairs window, N.D., a witness, saw BSF troops encircling the house of one of his neighbors. At 10:30 pm, they entered the house and N.D. heard cries coming from the house. N.D. told Human Rights Watch/Asia:

The BSF brought my neighbor and his son out of the house and into the inner courtyard. They beat them and asked them where Javeed was. They said they did not know. One of the soldiers knocked the father to the ground, and when his wife came out and pleaded with the soldiers not to beat her husband and son, one soldier ripped off the top portion of her pheran and struck her on the chest. When the daughter came out the soldier did the same to her. At this point, Khurshid Ahmed Bhat walked out of the house. The soldiers immediately hit him with their rifles on his thighs and on the back of his head. Blood came out of his mouth. The soldiers then took hold of the daughter and told Khurshid to ""engage in nasty acts with her." He refused and said "I am the man you want, that's it."

The soldiers put Bhat into a truck and drove away. They left at midnight. The next morning, BSF soldiers came to the area and fired shots into the air for more than half an hour, and then withdrew. Shortly after that, the Jammu and Kashmir police came and told the residents that a dead body had been found, and they needed someone to come and identify it. N.D. went with others from the neighborhood to see the body at the local police station. N.D. described the condition of the body:

There was a lot of blood and several wounds on the forehead and nose, a cut in the mouth, wounds on the back and chest, cuts on the legs and arms, and a broken elbow.

Human Rights Watch/Asia saw photographs of the body. There was a bullet wound in the forehead, a bullet wound on the nose and a large open wound on the back of the head. There were also scrapes and cuts on the chest and mouth.

In an official report of the killing, the government claimed that Bhat died in an encounter with security forces.

Bhat's relatives have stated that they were approached by BSF Commander "Peter" Sharma, whose troops were responsible for the murder, and offered money not to bring a case in court. The family refused and has registered a case against the BSF. To Human Rights Watch/Asia's knowledge, no investigation has taken place.

The Shooting of Ghulam M.

In some cases, the security forces have opened fire on civilians even after the civilians have identified themselves. Ghulam M. was shot and injured by BSF soldiers outside his home in Ganderbal, thirty kilometers north of Srinagar, on December 6, 1995.

At about 8:00pm, I heard gunfire near my house. An hour later, I went outside to my shop to make sure that my two sons, who worked there, were safe. I was accompanied by a cousin and another son. We were carrying a gas light. As we reached the shop, we saw a soldier wearing white military boots lying on the road. He called out, "Who are you?" I replied that we were civilians. Then shots rang out. I was hit by a bullet in the right knee. My son cried out, "You've shot my father," and the BSF soldier yelled abusive language at him.

Ghulam M. was taken to the Bone and Joint Hospital, and his right leg was amputated from above the knee.

Torture

Torture has remained a constant in Kashmir. In his report of January 9, 1996, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Nigel Rodley stated:

[The Special Rapporteur has] received information that torture was practiced routinely by the army, the Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) against the vast majority of persons arrested for political reasons in Jammu and Kashmir. Official investigations into allegations of torture, including those that resulted in custodial deaths, were said to be rare. On the few occasions when such investigations had taken place, they were carried out by the security forces themselves, rather than by an independent body.63

There is no evidence that the government of India has taken serious steps to curb the practice of torture in Kashmir. Most detainees taken into custody by the security forces in Kashmir continue to be tortured. The methods that have long been practiced in the state are fairly crude, and the security forces have demonstrated little concern fordisguising injuries caused by torture. These methods include prolonged beatings, electric shock, burning with heated objects and crushing the muscles with a wooden roller. Detainees are generally held in temporary detention centers, controlled by the various security forces, without access to the courts, relatives or medical care.

Although the government has made some effort to publicize courts-martial and punishments of security personnel who have committed rape, many charges of rape continue to go uninvestigated. As with other methods of torture, rape has been used to punish suspected militant sympathizers and create a climate of fear.

Detention Procedures that Facilitate Torture

Torture usually takes place in interrogation centers operated by the security forces, and it almost always occurs in the first hours or days after the victim is detained. Every security force has its own interrogation centers in Kashmir, which include temporary detention centers at BSF, CRPF and army camps, hotels and other buildings that have been taken over by security forces.64 Detainees are first interrogated by the detaining security force for periods of time which may range from several hours to several weeks. During this time the detainee is not produced before a court or given access to anyone outside the interrogation center. Those suspected of being militants may then be interrogated at Joint Interrogation Centres (JICs) at which each security force is represented. Detention at the JIC may last for months.

Indian security personnel routinely ignore procedural safeguards designed to prevent torture when taking persons into custody. Although Indian law requires that everyone taken into custody must be produced before a magistrate within twenty-four hours, in fact, detainees are rarely produced at all.65 Prohibitions and safeguards against torture in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCrP),66 which prohibit the use of coerced confessions and prescribe inquiries into deaths in custody and prison terms for officers guilty of torture, are also routinely disregarded. To Human Rights Watch/Asia's knowledge, the government has never made public any action it has taken to hold security personnel responsible for torture in Kashmir criminally liable for their actions. The U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (Resolution 34/169, December 17, 1979) states, in Article 5, that "no law enforcement officials may inflict, instigate, or tolerate any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment nor may any law enforcement official invoke superior order in exceptional circumstances such as . . . internal political instability or any other public emergency . . . as justification for torture."

Lawyers in Kashmir have filed more than 15,000 habeas corpus petitions since 1990 calling on state authorities to reveal the whereabouts of detainees and the charges against them. However, in the vast majority of cases, the authorities have not responded, and the petitions remain pending in the courts. A large number of bail applications are also pending. Even when the High Court has ordered state authorities to produce detainees in court or release those against whom no charges have been brought, state and security force officials have refused to comply. Lawyers have also filed petitions charging officials with contempt for non-compliance, but these petitions have also received no response.

Under pressure from the authorities, the courts routinely grant government officials extended time to respond to petitions. Detainees who have been held for up to a year have not been granted access to legal counsel. The Jammu andKashmir Bar Association has a list of 100 persons held as of October 1995 in one joint interrogation center in Kotbalwal, near Jammu. They have been held there without charge after they were first detained for one year under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act. In some cases, after a year had passed without formal charges being brought, the security forces filed another FIR to hold the detainee on the pretext of a new investigation. Fearing reprisals, judges have been reluctant to challenge the actions of the security forces.

In response to a petition about the mistreatment of detainees in the state, in October 1994, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court ordered that in each district a committee be created of district judges, district magistrates, senior superintendents of police (SSPs) and district medical officers to visit every jail and interrogation center and submit a report to the High Court about the conditions and facilities every two weeks. In May 1995, the state government appealed the order, and a Division Bench made up of two judges of the High Court affirmed the initial ruling, with the amendment that the reports be submitted every two months. However, the security forces refused to provide lists of the detention centers, so that as of January 1996, the court had received only four reports in total from the thirteen districts in the state in the eight months since the court's ruling.

In December 1995, the district judge in Anantnag complained that the army had not provided him with a list of detention centers, and as a result he was only able to visit the JIC in Anantnag. He reported that at the JIC, many detainees were detained "not pursuant to any law." He noted that fifty-two detainees were housed in "five small cell type rooms... Patently, the accommodation is too short to lodge dozens of persons ... [A]ll ... complained about the lack of medical facilities." 67One year earlier, he had documented torture by the security forces, including forcing detainees to sit for extended periods of time in cold water, electric shock, pulling the legs apart at a wide angle, and suspending detainees upside down . In his December 1994 report, the judge noted that marks of violence on the detainees were "quite visible." 68

There is no question that civil and security officials in Kashmir are aware of the widespread use of torture. Petitions pending before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court provide ample documentation, including medical evidence, of the systematic use of torture.

Torture of S.K.

Human Rights Watch/Asia interviewed S.K., a student, who was arrested by Commanding Officer Joshi of the 81st Battalion of the BSF on January 25, 1995.

Commanding Officer Joshi accused me of being a Pakistani national. At the BSF base camp I was brought to some other Kashmiris to speak with them so they could check my accent. They kept me in base camp until January 27. On the morning of January 27, my hands and legs were tied to the bed, and I was made to lie back on a steel bed. Uniformed BSG soldiers put a piece of cloth in my mouth. Three of them leaned on my chest and head. Then they pumped water into my nose. I was suffocating and choking. I started bleeding from my mouth. Then the soldiers turned me over and beat me on my back and feet with a long iron rod. They also hit me with a leather belt which they had dipped in water. My back was bleeding. There was blood splattered on the wall in the room. Then they made me lie down face up on bed again and tied my hands and feet to bed. They applied electric shock to my feet, genitals, chest, and tongue for twenty minutes in all. Two wires—one on either side of my body—were attached to a generator with a crank which one of the soldiers turned. If he turned the crank fast, the shock was severe; if he turned it slowly, less so.

The following day S.K. was shifted to the BSF Papa II interrogation center in Srinagar where he was interrogated by a BSF officer who had "SP"[superintendent] on his uniform and was called Vikas by his subordinates.

He told me that if I spoke on the telephone with my uncle in Karachi, they would not torture me. I have no uncle in Karachi. He said if I would not admit to being a Pakistani national, they would torture me. He said, "First we will destroy your kidneys, then your lungs, then you will die." I was tied to the bed with my legs spread out at nearly a 180-degree angle. For the next thirty minutes, I was again given electric shock to my legs and genitals, and they took lit matches and burned my beard, and finally they applied shocks to my head until I fell unconscious. At one point during interrogation, Vikas, the BSF officer said, "No one knows you are in our custody; we can just throw you in the river and no one will ever know."

When S.K. woke up, BSF deputy inspector general Rajinder Mani, the BSF chief interrogator, began questioning him about public opinion in Kashmir. On the evening of January 30, a doctor examined S.K. because he had not urinated in thirty-six hours, had swelling all over his body and bloody stools. He was given some medicine, but the swelling continued. On February 2, S.K. was transferred to the Badami Bagh Cantonment army hospital, where he described how he had been tortured. He was given penicillin. However, S.K. was afraid to tell them that he was allergic to penicillin, and the swelling worsened. On the evening of February 2, S.K. overheard a doctor tell a BSF officer from Papa II that his kidneys had failed, that his liver was failing and that he had only six hours left to live. The doctor advised the officer that S.K. "should be thrown on the roadside because it would be a custodial killing if he were to die in the hospital."

That night, the officer came to me and said they would take me to the Soura Institute. Instead, BSF soldiers took me from Army hospital to the police control room in Srinagar. The BSF officer who took me there told me I should not tell anyone in the press what had happened to me. He also said, "if you want to save your life, go to Soura [hospital] yourself." I was at the police control room for two hours. At 8:00pm the Jammu and Kashmir police took me home. At 1:30am I started vomiting pink fluid. The morning of February 3 I was taken to SMHS hospital, where I stayed for two days. My condition worsened. On the morning of February 4, I was taken to the Soura Institute where I remained for eighteen days. I was given five sessions of dialysis so my kidneys recovered. Since then that terrible experience is always on my mind. When I see a BSF officer, there are no words to express what I feel, because that whole episode -- what happened to me -- comes to my eyes. I am still very weak. I tire easily. I feel eighty years old.

Torture of E.

E. a government employee from Srinagar, was arrested by the BSF during a crackdown on November 2, 1995.

At 10:00am I went outside with my sister and asked a BSF officer to allow me and my sister to leave so that she could take an exam. She was allowed to go, but I was not. When I returned home, I discovered that the BSF had already searched the house and left. At 11:30 am several dozen BSF soldiers surrounded the house. Six soldiers entered the house and asked for me by name and said they had to conduct a search of the house again because they had specific information that I had connections with some militants. After they searched the house, they ordered me to come with them. They accused me of knowing the hideout locations of militants. I said I did not. Then they said that militants had been coming to my house. I replied that they did come to my house and to other houses—they enter any home at will and there is nothing we can do to stop them. But since January 1995, no militant had entered my house.

The BSF took E. and one of his neighbors to a nearby BSF camp. Outside one of the buildings, he saw five civilians sitting on the lawn with their pherans pulled around their heads. Some of them were moaning as if in pain. E.was taken to a room where six BSF soldiers were waiting. In the room was a chair, some clothes, and a telephone that is used to send electro-magnetic signals.

I was told to remain standing. They asked me my name and when I told them, several of them cursed me. One asked me,"Tell me where the militants are." I said I don't know. Another said, "They come to your house." I said yes but not since January 1995. Then one of the officers said, "You will not divulge information, so take off your clothes." I hesitated. Then one of the officers struck me on the head several times while another kicked me in the back and said, "Take off your clothes." I took off my clothes. They told me to sit, and I sat on the chair. Then one of them kicked me in the back and said, "You are not an officer here. This chair is for an officer." Then I sat on the floor with only my undershirt on and they told me to sit in front of the chair and put my hands behind me on the chair. Then one of them sat on my shoulders so that I could not move my head or arms. Another one grabbed my legs and forced them apart at nearly 180 degrees—as far as they would go. I began crying.

The soldiers continued to ask E. for the names of militants, and he replied that he did not know any. While the two soldiers were still holding his legs apart, and the third was still sitting on his shoulders, two others stood on his thighs, causing him great pain in the groin. After two minutes of this, one of the soldiers, an officer, asked, "Why do you want to die? Why don't you tell us the names?" E. again denied that he knew any. Two other BSF soldiers came into the room, and they were told to "get the telephone." E. described what happened next:

One soldier then picked up the box and brought it over, and the other pulled two wires out of the box. While the first soldier rotated the crank on the box, the second touched my genitals and thighs with the wires. I cried out. This continued for two or three minutes. Then the officer asked me, "Will you now reveal the names?" I said I don't know anyone. He asked what connections I had with militancy, and I said none except I am a social worker and a Kashmiri. Militants come into our homes as you do; how can we stop them? Then the officer signaled with his hand to the two soldiers holding the telephone apparatus. They again applied the wires to my thighs and genitals for three or four minutes. I was crying at each shock. After that the officer told them to stop. Throughout this the other five officers continued to sit on me and hold my legs apart. The one sitting on my shoulders was pulling my hair. The officer asked if I was married. I said no, and he said, "We will render you impotent if you do not cooperate."

The soldiers gave E. electric shocks two more times. The fourth time one of the soldiers placed a green chili on one of the wires, which increased the pain. E. fell unconscious, and when he came to, a soldier told him to stand up and helped him walk around the room. When he came outside he saw the soldiers who had interrogated him questioning the neighbor who had been arrested with him. E. was told to sit with the others on the lawn, and the neighbor joined them a short time later. At about 3:00 pm, they were taken to BSF headquarters in Srinagar, one kilometer away. On the morning on November 3, they were taken to the Papa II interrogation center, where they were separated. E. was made to wait on the lawn where more than ten other persons were being held. He was not tortured there, but most of the other detainees were called up one by one, questioned and then beaten with canes and leather belts. E. told Human Rights Watch/Asia:

Two detainees were stripped and forced to climb a wooden pole about twelve feet high. Then a BSF soldier would apply shocks to the man with wires. When the man would slip down, crying, they would beat him with lathis [canes]. I also saw at least two persons in Papa II on November 4 who were not able to walk. I talked to one of them. He identified himself as Badshah Khan, district commander of the JKLF in Kupwara, a border district in northwest Kashmir. He told me his back had been burned after kerosene oil had been poured on it. He identified another person there as Alam Khan.

In the evening E. was taken back to the BSF camp. On November 6 he was again taken to Papa II where the soldiers told him he should work for the BSF as an informer. E. refused. That evening, when he was brought back to thebase camp, the Jammu and Kashmir police were called, and he was handed over to them. The police took E. and his neighbor home. Since his torture, E. has suffered numbness in his ###### and impotence.

Torture of Feroz Ahmed Ganai

Feroz Ahmed Ganai, a twenty-eight-year-old contractor, was arrested by the BSF on November 29, 1995. On December 12, he was brought to the Bone and Joint Hospital with a gangrenous broken leg and acute renal failure. According to doctors in the emergency ward, Ganai had been brought in by the commander of the BSF 1st Battalion who claimed that Ganai was a militant and that he had broken his leg trying to escape.69 However, Ganai told the doctors that the BSF had broken his leg on the first day of interrogation. Ganai pleaded with the doctors, "Keep me here—otherwise they will kill me."

A doctor who examined Ganai stated that his leg had been broken about fourteen days earlier.

It had become gangrenous, with secondary blistering. The leg below the knee was entirely black at the time he was admitted and had to be amputated. The patient had received no medical care for the injury prior to his admission. Both kidneys had failed because of the gangrene and because of the beatings. The patient was in a state of shock; his blood was infected. He had contusions all over his body and face.

It took the BSF three to four hours to arrange for blood transfusions. But the doctors did not use that blood because upon screening it was found to contain sexually-transmitted diseases. Instead they used the hospital's blood bank and amputated Ganai's left leg from above the knee. On December 13, he was sent to Soura for kidney treatment.

While Ganai was under treatment at the Bone and Joint Hospital and the Soura Institute, he remained in BSF custody. Since his arrest, no family member or lawyer had been permitted to see him. In response to a petition filed by the family, on December 19, the High Court ordered that the family be permitted visits and that one person nominated by the mother be allowed to sit with him at the hospital. However, the BSF ignored the order.

When Human Rights Watch/Asia visited the Bone and Joint Hospital in January 1996, we observed six uniformed BSF soldiers accompanying Ganai, who was walking on crutches, out of the hospital. We have been unable to obtain any further knowledge of his whereabouts or condition.

In response to a letter from Human Rights Watch/Asia, the National Human Rights Commission requested information from the BSF in Kashmir about Ganai's case. BSF Commander S. S. Kothiyal responded with a statement claiming that Ganai, who was a "chief of Jamat-ul Mujahideen [a little-known militant group], was arrested on November 29, 1995, and that when he had tried to escape in heavy snow, he broke his leg. Because Ganai "did not observe proper precautions as advised by the doctor and kept on moving his leg" the leg became gangrenous and had to be amputated. The BSF commander also claims that family visits were permitted.

The BSF statement is flatly contradicted by the testimony of doctors who treated Ganai and by the High Court's December 19 ruling on family visits. According to a statement by the NHRC, as of May 1996, Ganai was in custody at a Joint Interrogation Centre in Srinagar.

Torture of S.

S., a doctor from Tral, a village about forty kilometers south of Srinagar, was arrested by the BSF and tortured. He told Human Rights Watch/Asia that on May 15, 1995, he was arrested by a local BSF commander, "Jamil Khan," whoaccused him of treating a militant who had been injured escaping from Charar-e Sharif.70 He was taken first to a BSF camp in Tral, and then to Lathpora, a BSF camp in Pulwama district.

I was questioned by Intelligence Officer Sharma for about an hour at midnight and for an hour the next morning. On the morning of May 16, I was taken to the BSF camp at Bunar, still in Pulwama district. The BSF commander questioned me, then he put me into a cell in which there were several basins of water, several ropes, several cricket bats, and some electric equipment. About five BSF soldiers were in the room. They kept me there for one hour. First they made me take off my clothes. Then they forced my head five or six times into a basin of water. Then they covered my head with a plastic bag so that I could not breathe. Then they made me sit down with my knees raised and a rod inserted behind and under them while my hands were tied against my legs.

S. was then sent to the Papa II interrogation center where he was questioned further. He was released at 3:00 pm.

Torture of Mohammad I.

Mohammad I., a seventeen-year-old student, was arrested by the 163rd Battalion of the BSF in April 1995 from the old town neighborhood of Srinagar. Along with ten others, he was taken to the local interrogation center at Baramulla. He was kept there for three and a half months. He stated:

I was interrogated six days a week, all day, for the entire time. The interrogation room was a small room with no windows, only a door. There were ropes and wooden clubs and wires and a car battery. On the first day, I was separated from the others, my legs were tied and I was beaten with clubs and a wooden stick with nails in it, usually on my legs, but sometimes on my hands. They repeatedly accused him of being a militant. I told them I was not. They also tortured me with the roller. They made me lie with my legs tied while two soldiers rolled the roller over my thighs until I fainted.71

One day a soldier extinguished cigarettes into Mohammad's right hand to form the letter "F," saying, "You said you wanted freedom." When Human Rights Watch/Asia interviewed Mohammad I. in January 1996, his right hand was still grossly disfigured from the burns.

Mohammad I. stated that he was given electric shock to his testicles for sixteen days. The shocks were given consecutively, lasting two or three minutes, until he would go into convulsions and faint. After the first three and a half months he was shifted to the Baramulla JIC, where he was not tortured. He was held there until December 20 when the district sessions court in Baramulla ordered him released on bail on the grounds of his medical condition.

Mohammad I. had no medical care while detained. According to a doctor who treated him in Srinagar, he has suffered episodes of manic-depression and needs psychiatric treatment. He has also lost 50 percent mobility in his right hand, passes blood in his urine and has become impotent.

Sexual Assault/Attempted Rape by Rashtriya Rifles Soldiers in Wurwun

On the night of December 30, soldiers from the Rashtriya Rifles unit of the Indian army entered a house in Wurwun village, district Pulwama, seventeen kilometers south of Srinagar, assaulted several family members and sexually assaulted and attempted to rape three women. Rahti Akhtar, forty-five, testified that she first heard dogs barking at 11:30 pm When she looked outside, she saw about eight soldiers enter the courtyard and encircle the house. A few approached the door and knocked. The soldiers asked her to give them some food, and she said that she would send it to the camp.She recognized some of the soldiers as ones she had seen in the area. Fahmeela Akhtar, fifteen, told Human Rights Watch/Asia that at 11:30pm, she was awakened by her mother telling her that the army had come. Her mother then tried to call out to their neighbors, but the soldiers yelled at her to keep quiet.

Then Fahmeela's sister, Mubera Akhtar, seventeen, opened the front door of the house. Three army soldiers entered and stood at the door. One said , "Keep quiet, " then bolted the door from the inside. The soldiers were all in uniforms bearing the Rashtriya Rifles insignia, and they were wearing white boots. All three were drunk. Mubera said to one of the soldiers, "If you want to search, please let us go outside, and you search for what you want." The soldier told her to keep quiet and then at gunpoint forced the men into one room and the five women and three children into another and closed the doors. One soldier remained inside the room with the men. Two soldiers were inside the room with the women.

Nazir, twenty-two, and Mohammad, twenty-four, heard their mother's cries and came downstairs. When the soldiers said that they wanted to search, Nazir asked them if the family could wait outside. He told Human Rights Watch/Asia:

The soldiers refused and forced us at gunpoint into one room. One of them hit me with the butt of his gun. They were carrying Kalashnikov rifles. They smelled of alcohol.One soldier stayed outside the room; the door was not bolted. I could hear my sisters' cries from the other room.

Fahmeela told Human Rights Watch/Asia:

First the soldiers forced Mubera and Amira to the floor and lay on top of them and molested them. One soldier pulled off the top portion of my clothes. I opened the door and tried to run, but the soldier caught me and pulled me back and started to molest me. I was screaming.

Nazir and Mohammad managed to escape from their room. Nazir told Human Rights Watch/Asia:

I climbed out the window and went to the front door, where I saw three soldiers standing. I could not enter the house, but I managed to get into the corridor. Mohammad came into the corridor at the same time. Then the soldiers grabbed us and took us outside. I got hold of a congri and threw it at one of the soldiers and slipped away.

The soldiers had bolted the front doors of the two neighbors' houses, but when the residents went to the second floors of their houses and screamed, other residents of the village came and unbolted the doors and the soldiers ran out of the Akhtar house. The crowd pursued them. As they ran, the soldiers fired their guns in the air. The neighbors followed the soldiers to the entrance of the camp. The soldiers had been in the house for about fifteen minutes.

The next day, when the residents noticed that a soldier's cap was scorched, they yelled, "He is one of them!" The soldier claimed that he burned his cap while ironing it.

On the following day, December 31, residents of the village gathered to protest the incident, and soldiers from the army camp attempted to disperse them. The next day, the commanding army officer came with some of the soldiers to the village along with a local officer. Rahti told Human Rights Watch/Asia:

The commanding officer told us not to tell anyone what had happened. He said that in exchange, the army would not search houses in the area or conduct a crackdown in the area or arrest any young men. He said, "We are already involved in two cases of this kind. Please don't involve us in a third case."

Despite this, the residents lodged a formal complaint with the local police. Afterwards, soldiers from the camp came around warning people not to talk about the incident.

As Human Rights Watch/Asia was conducting these interviews, we observed fifteen to twenty soldiers walking rapidly down the road with three young men from the village in their custody: Nazir Ahmed Dar, twenty-six; Khurshid Ahmed Malik, twenty-six; and Javeed Ahmed Rathore, twenty-four. The three were among the leaders of the gathering in the village the day after the attempted rape. As this report went to print, Human Rights Watch/Asia was unable to determine whether the men were detained for any length of time or released.

58 U. S. Department of State, Country Reports. The citation used was printed from a file made available electronically; the quote appears on the first page of the India chapter in the report.

59 On July 5, 1990, the governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Girish Saxena, promulgated the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Ordinance, 1990, which in September was passed by the Indian parliament as the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act. The act authorizes the governor or the central government to declare the whole or any part of the state to be a "disturbed area" if it is found that disturbances in the area are such that "the use of the armed forces in aid of the civil power" is necessary to prevent "terrorist acts" or activities directed towards bringing about secession. In a "disturbed area," the act empowers"any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces" to:

after giving such due warning as he may consider necessary, fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons or of things capable of being used as weapons or of fire-arms, ammunition or explosive substances....

Also on July 5, 1990, the state government promulgated the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act which similarly grants the security forces enhanced powers to use lethal force in the "disturbed areas" of the six districts of the Kashmir valley and a 20-kilometer belt in the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu region. Both acts provide, "No suit, prosecution, or other legal proceedings shall be instituted except with the previous sanction of the State Government against any person in respect of anything done or purporting to be done in exercise of the powers conferred [by the Acts]." The provisions in both of these acts on the use of lethal force directly violate the U.N. Code for Law Enforcement (Article 3).

60 During crackdowns, the security forces routinely order a number of men from the locality to accompany the soldiers searching houses s to act as shields and to ensure that the soldiers will not be accused of molesting women in the houses.

61 The army and other security forces usually hand over dead bodies to the police.

62 See account of the killing of Khurshid Ahmed Bhat below.

63 United Nations Economic and Social Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1995/37 (E/CN.4/1996/35, January 9, 1996), p. 18.

64 Some of the interrogation centers which have been used are: Old Airport (BSF), Hari Niwas Interrogation Center (CRPF), Papa I (CRPF), Papa II (BSF), Red 16 (BSF), Badami Bagh (Army Cantonment), Gogoland -- between the old and new airports (CRPF), Bagi Ali Mardan (Nowshera) (BSF), Lal Bazaar Police Station (BSF), Hotel Mamta, Dal Gate (BSF) and Shiraz Cinema, Khenyar (BSF).

65 This provision is routinely disregarded by police throughout India. Under Article 9 of the ICCPR, "Anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law. . . and shall be entitled to a trial within a reasonable time or released."

66 Sections 330 and 331 prescribe prison terms and fines for officers guilty of torture. Section 176 of the CCrP requires a magisterial inquiry into any death in custody. The Indian Evidence Act and the CCrP also prohibit the use of coerced confessions.

67 Report of the District Committee Anantnag constituted by the High Court in Public Interest Petition Jalil Andrabi v/s State," December 1995.

68 Office of District and Sessions Judge, Anantnag, Jalil Andrabi vs. State of J&K and others, H.C. petition no. 850 of 1994: Preliminary Report.

69 Having publicized Ganai's arrest as big catch, the BSF apparently did not want him to die in custody.

70 On May 10, 1995, a two-month standoff between the army and militants who had taken refuge in a Sufi shrine in the town of Charar-e Sharief in western Kashmir ended in disaster when the shrine and much of the town burned to the ground.

71 Soldiers usually stand on the roller, thereby increasing the pressure on the leg muscles.
 
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