US claims ill-treatment on JK detainees: WikiLeaks

Washington, Dec 17: Creating embarrassment to the Indian government, one of the leaked United States diplomatic cables alleged that Indian security forces were using antihuman methods to torture hundreds of Kashmir detainees.

The leaked cables published in Guardian exposed that International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in 2005, asked US officials in Delhi to submit a report on the antihuman methods used by Indian security forces. In the report submitted back to Washington, US officials claimed the ill-treatment of detainees.

The cable said, "torture methods and relatively stable trend lines of prisoner abuses by Indian security forces, based on data derived from 1491 interviews with detainees during 2002-2004. The continued ill-treatment of detainees, despite longstanding ICRC-GOI dialogue, have led the ICRC to conclude that the New Delhi condones torture."

The report claimed that ICRC staff visited 177 detention centres in Jammu and Kashmir between 2002-2004 and met 1491 detainees to make the report.

"In 852 cases, detainees reported what ICRC refers to as "IT" (ill-treatment): 171 persons were beaten, the remaining 681 subjected to one or more of six forms of torture: electricity (498 cases), suspension from ceiling (381), "roller" (a round metal object put on the thighs of sitting person, which prison personnel then sit on, crushing muscles -- 294); stretching (legs split 180 degrees -- 181), water (various forms -- 234), or sexual (302)," the cable added.

Another cable revealed that when ICRC staff met Indian government officials over the issue, the response about the human rights situation in Kashmir was "much better than it was in the 1990s."

OneIndia News