Every fifth Kashmiri victim of torture: VOV

KL Report

SRINAGAR

‘Voice of Victims’, a state human rights defender group, Thursday claimed that 471 torture centres still exist in Kashmir.

VOV Executive director Abdul Qadeer in a statement to CNS said that torture is considered a potent weapon in the sub-conventional warfare and India is using it in Kashmir to curb the freedom movement of the people who demand right to self-determination.

He said that in the light of United Nations’ definition of torture, every single person of Kashmir has been a victim of torture as they have been living in the presence of 7,00,000 hostile Indian troops.

“Physical torture has evidence like injury marks etc but a victim of mental torture, which every Kashmiri certainly is, has no evidence to plead his case,” he added.

He said that it is very difficult to get justice for torture in India because there is no law in Indian constitution, which can deliver justice to the victims of torture. “Due to this reason in most circumstances it is futile to approach law,” he added.

VOV said that India had been using torture “as a weapon of war to terrorize people and to curb the political movement” of right to self-determination. “There are about four lakh people who have been tortured from a moderate to severe degree. 99 per cent of all those who were or are being arrested are subjected to torture,” he said, adding every fifth Kashmiri is victim of torture and after every 5 Kilometres there is one torture centre. He said that 471 torture centres of Indian armed troops are still functioning in Kashmir.

“Methods of torture, head dipping in water, rolling on front side legs, electric shocks, inserting chilli powder in private parts, cutting body parts or mutilating, keeping detained naked during torture, sexually abusing, legs or arms stretching, inserting iron rods, hanging upside down, forced to drink excessive water, and humiliation are worst and all of them have been experimented on Kashmiri people,” he said.

Coordinator VOV, Abdul Rouf Khan emphasized the need to encourage the survivors of torture so that they would not feel isolated in the society. He also expressed his concern over the silence of the international organizations working on the issue of torture in different countries and appealed them to come forward.

He said that Baramullah Youth, Mohmmad Afsar Khan is the recent example of torture which needs immediate attention of international human rights organizations.

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