Army abuses provoke protests in Kashmir

Staff Report

NEW DELHI: A fresh wave of violence and public demonstrations gripped southern Kashmir on Saturday when, in two separate incidents, Indian troops demolished a madrassa and tortured villagers.

More than 200 residents of a remote Nagbal forest village staged a demonstration at Pulwama district headquarters, claiming that Rashtriya Rifles troops (RR) had made their lives miserable. The protesters carried two villagers, Aziz and Kaka, who had been beaten half to death by Indian troops, to the district headquarters.

They had torture marks on their thighs, hands, waists and feet. Aziz told the Pulwama deputy commissioner that Indian soldiers had burned his hips with a kerosene stove, adding that they had given him electric shocks and made him drink water mixed with red chillies. When he resisted, he said, the soldiers forced his mouth open with a stick. The protesters said that the troops, frustrated at not killing or apprehending two suspected militants, branded the two villagers militant collaborators and beat them. They said the soldiers had made almost 30 villagers lie on wooden planks and then tied their hands and feet.

Home | National