According to reports, Wikileaks has revealed that US diplomats in New Delhi were privately briefed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2005 that Indian security forces were torturing Kashmiri civilians. Torture methods included electrocution, physical abuse and sexual interference against hundreds of detainees.
According to leaked diplomatic cables, ICRC had sent a detailed report to Washington, which stated that India “condones torture” and that the detainees were not Islamist insurgents or Pakistani-backed militants, who were “routinely killed.” Instead, they were civilians “connected to or believed to have information about the insurgency.”
According to the cables, ICRC interviewed 1,296 detainees and 681 of them said that they were tortured.
Of those, 498 claimed to have been electrocuted, 381 said they were suspended from the ceiling, and 304 cases were described as “sexual.” A total of 294 described a procedure in which guards crushed their legs by putting a bar across their thighs and sitting on it, while 181 said their legs had been pulled apart into the splits, revealed the cables.
The ICRC said all branches of the Indian security forces used these forms of ill-treatment and torture, adding: “The abuse always takes place in the presence of officers and … detainees were rarely militants (they are routinely killed), but persons connected to or believed to have information about the insurgency.”
Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy: revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com
