Stories of torture.

Srinagar, Kashmir. December 1, 2020.

 

***Trigger: sexual violence, graphic content.***

 

 

Since the occupation began in 1947, India has used gruesome torture as a tool of suppression against Kashmiris. Torture is used as a systematic mechanism to create a fear-psychosis in the Kashmiri people and weaken the people’s resolve to resist the occupation.

 

 

 

Some of the torture techniques that India uses on Kashmiris:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niaz’s story:

 

 

“Since the day I was released [from Kawoosa torture center] I might have crossed that building thousands of times, as it is on the way to my office but never did I dare look towards it” said Niaz while shifting himself uneasily on the cushioned seats of the bus while passing Kawoosa house in Nowhatta Chowk.

 

 

“The entire place smelled of alcohol urine and vomit. It was unbearable for a normal person to even stand inside that torture room for five minutes”, said Niaz.

 

Via Kashmir Life.

 

 

 

Junaid’s story:

 

 

Residents from the town of Batamaloo in Srinagar remember an Indian army major named Major Singh taking away scores of youths who were killed in various ways. “Singh ordered his troops to throw boys into the Jhelum and they did,” says Junaid, one of Singh’s would-be victims.

 

When Junaid was at the Shariefabad army camp (also a torture center), his neighbors, Mohammad Shaban & his son Yahya, arrived there too. “Yahya was already dead when he was brought to the camp. His father was tortured to death subsequently. The Major was notorious for burning people alive in an iron tank inside the Shariefabad camp,’ he says.

 

Via Guernica Mag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An anonymous 18-year old’s story:

 

 

 

An 18-year-old Kashmiri lay curled in a corner of a Srinagar prison cell, naked, howling, and writhing in pain. He knew he was bleeding—he could feel the blood coming out of his rectum—but he couldn’t bring himself to look. More than the pain, he said, it was the humiliation that was unbearable.

 

Earlier that day, half a dozen policemen entered his cell and stripped him naked. Five policemen then took turns to rape him, the survivor, now 27 years old said. The others watched, recording the act on video, laughing, spitting at him, and hurling abuses.

 

Via The Caravan Magazine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qalandar’s story:

 

 

One night in 1992, Qalandar Khatana was dragged away by the Indian army to their camp at Mori. He was then accused of being a guide who had helped militants.

 

 

At the camp, he was routinely tortured & was forced to do labor work. 6 months later, he was brought to Papa II, a notorious torture centre. He claims that the flesh from his waist and elsewhere was sliced with a blade, and that he was then forced to eat bits of it.

 

 

“I passed out and when I regained consciousness, I found my blood-stained limbs had been tied with strips of cloth”. His wounds had gotten infected with maggots & eventually his legs had to be amputated.

 

Via The Wire.

 

 

 

Yasin Malik’s story:

 

 

 

Muhammad Yasin Malik leader of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) from Srinagar, Kashmir who has been arrested multiple times since he was a 20-year-old student leader in 1986. He has been tortured multiple times in detention which included solitary confinement & sleep deprivation.

 

 

In 1991, he had to undergo an open-heart surgery due to the cardiac problems he developed during detention. In another surgery, his heart valve was replaced. Till now he has undergone 11 surgeries.

 

 

Via JKCCS.

 

 

 

 

 

Stand With Kashmir (SWK) is a Kashmiri-driven independent, transnational, grassroots movement committed to standing in solidarity with the people of Indian occupied Kashmir in ending the Indian occupation of their homeland and supporting the right to self-determination of the pre-partition state of Jammu and Kashmir. We want to hear from you. If you have general inquiries, suggestions, or concerns, please email us at info@standwithkashmir.org.