When Indian Army Tortured and Murdered Its Own Civilians

You do not accept even in your dreams that the army you so dearly respect will turn against its own citizens and indulge in barbaric inhumane crimes but...

It’s been a long time since the last newsletter, and in these few months, a lot has taken place. And so I kept thinking, what should I tell you about? What is it that you might have missed among the din of constant news activity, but is important for you to know, and in this respect, I have decided to go with the below. While I have maintained in past and even during Operation Sindoor, I do not by default respect men with guns, and will always look at them with suspicion. And because they hold a gun and the army in India is the only entity that has the right to kill humans, I sincerely believe they should be judged on a higher degree of righteousness and also held to higher standards of accountability.

But the account below is more appalling because it does not even adhere to standards held otherwise even by dacoits. Even the men in mountains and jungles seem to hold dear some laws of human decency.

From Where the Orders Came

Army officers testify that two generals oversaw the torture and murder of civilians in Poonch

Nazir Hussain, Shaukat’s father, described the state the body had returned in. “His body had turned black and the nails of his hands and toes had been pulled out,” he told me. “They had broken his arms at multiple places, and there were bruises across his legs and face. My child was savagely brutalised.” The Caravan has viewed photos and videos of Shaukat’s body from before his burial that substantiate all of Nazir’s claims.
[…]

A video from this incident soon went viral across social media. It shows two men being forcibly stripped by soldiers, who proceed to put chilli powder in their anuses. Several uniformed men are visibly beating three other men who are spread-eagled on the ground, while others stand with their combat boots on the hands of the tortured men.
Ashraf and Betab confirmed to me that it was them being tortured in the video. The video was likely taken by one of the soldiers or police personnel. According to multiple people from the area I spoke to, the video could have been circulated by the forces, likely to terrorise others in Jammu and Kashmir about what could occur if more militant attacks took place. Another theory was that the video could have been taken by a police officer and circulated because of a rivalry between the army and the police in the region.
[…]

The next day, the injured from both villages were sent back, returning to villages thick with troops. “They did not allow us to get medical treatment,” Nisar said. “They told us, ‘Die if you want to at home but don’t go out.’” Three days later, when the army let its guard down, the nine men from Sawani Mahra snuck out to the government sub-district hospital in Surankote.

At Bafliaz, many of Topa Peer’s residents had begun a protest outside the camp, demanding that the injured be sent to the hospital. The bodies of Shaukat, Safeer and Shabeer were returned to them after 3 am on 23 December. The families refused to accept the bodies until the six remaining men were taken to the hospital. When they were finally shifted to the Surankote army hospital, it was in a heavily guarded convoy, which the families could not approach. Speaking to the court of inquiry, Rajkumar admitted that Gupta was in command, managing the hospitalisation of the victims.

“I was told that a postmortem was being conducted then, and when I finally got to see the body at 4 am, it was only after performing the postmortem,” Noor Ahmed, Safeer’s brother, told me. “The postmortem was conducted inside the Bafliaz camp.” A medical officer from a paramilitary force told me last year that a proper procedure had to be adopted while granting permission to perform postmortems at a COB. “In a COB, only a medical inspection room is provided, with one junior doctor and a medical assistant,” they said. “It’s clearly evident that those who died would have suffered fractures, thus needing an X-ray for the postmortem. This clearly would not have been possible here. Everything seems like a cover-up.” The families were also not allowed to identify the bodies before the postmortem was conducted, which is a legal requirement. Neither the court of inquiry nor the AFT discuss the postmortems conducted at the camp, and none of the three families have received copies of the report as is legally required.

Irfaan was injured the worst. “There was blood in my urine because of the repeated punches to my abdomen,” he told me. His condition was so severe that he was airlifted to the military hospital in Udhampur. When I visited Irfaan’s home, on 9 January 2024, his family still did not know whether he was alive or dead. The army had not bothered to inform them of his transfer or allowed Irfaan to make any calls. He returned home 22 days after he had been first picked up, a shell of a man. He was all bones, unable to walk without the help of others. He had been the sole earner in the family, spending much of the day working, the early evenings delivering rations and oil to the maal post, and the late evenings stacking stones to build the family home, since they could not afford to hire any construction workers. Now, with Irfaan unable to walk outside the eaves of the home he had built, they did not know how they would stay afloat.

Portraits of Safeer, Shabeer and Shaukat, the three men the Indian army murdered in Topa Peer, on 22 December.

On 22 December 2023, 26 men, from the predominantly Muslim Gujjar community, were picked up from several villages in Rajouri and Poonch districts, and taken to three different army posts—Mastandra company operated base, Dera Ki Gali COB and Bafliaz COB—where they were severely tortured. From witness accounts, I had found that the army mercilessly beat them with wooden rods, lathis and metal pipes, with chilli powder put into their eyes and buttocks, while others were drowned and electrocuted. Three of them died as a result. A video of the torture at Dera Ki Gali, within the same compound where the five senior officers had set up their control room, was soon leaked to social media. Our investigation from last year indicated that, given that orders were sent to three different companies to commit these atrocities in three different army camps, this was not merely rogue soldiers venting their frustration after losing comrades, but a coordinated, directed, large-scale operation of torture.
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According to the documents from the court of inquiry, Gupta was sending lists of individuals to be picked up for interrogation, many of whom were tortured at the three army posts. They also indicate that the two generals received updates about the deaths of those in custody, and that orders were sent to move the bodies. The chats show, for instance, that Gupta had sent the videos of the torture in Dera Ki Gali to another officer in the command chain, and yet neither acted to stop it, though it was occurring within the same army post they were in. Gupta and Jain have not yet been called in front of the court of inquiry, nor were they pulled up by the AFT, suggesting they have been completely let off the hook. Instead, a few lower-rung officers have been given mild censures, affecting their promotions, while the court of inquiry continues against the soldiers who were involved. None have yet been court-martialled.

More than a year after the incident, the civilian-justice system has also not moved. A first-information report registered against the three deaths states the men were killed by “unknown person 1,” even though the FIR itself mentions that the army picked them up. None of the names of the 22 injured were mentioned in the FIR, and not a single person from the families of the deceased has been called by the police as witnesses. Instead, as I had reported last year, the families of those killed and injured were given blood money by the army—between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh—pointing to its role in attempting to derail the criminal-justice system. The Jammu and Kashmir government gave land to the three widows and jobs to three members of their families. Most locals I spoke to had entirely given up hope of justice for the dead and the injured. They had grown far more wary of the media, fearing that even this small compensation would be taken away.

Documents from the AFT and the court of inquiry—which began just two days after the incident of torture—show that the army leadership was aware, in intimate detail, of which individuals conducted the torture, on whose orders and under whose monitoring. The army leadership also appears to have been aware that most individuals who were picked up were civilians who had no links to militancy. Despite this, on 12 February 2024, the union ministry of information and broadcasting ordered The Caravan to take down my article, claiming that it wrongfully “portrayed the alleged actions of the security forces as a pre-planned operation.” This order is being challenged by The Caravan in court.

It is also now amply clear that the army was aware of the torture and deaths from the very start of the court of inquiry—even before The Caravan published the investigation. Most worryingly, if the army is able to, and does, conduct such detailed inquiries into custodial killings in Jammu and Kashmir, which have happened with regularity for decades, it raises a serious question: why has there been no serious action against uniformed officers who commit these crimes?
[…]

In July 2020, RR personnel killed three migrant labourers, including a minor, from Rajouri district, near the village of Amshipora. Three years later, the AFT granted the officers bail.

After a militant attack in April 2023, the RR rounded up 60 men, allegedly for questioning. Mukhtar Hussain Shah, who was among those men, claimed, in a video shot after his release, that the army had tortured him during questioning. Shah died by suicide a few days later, sparking major protests in the area. Incidents such as these and the repeated failure of justice has left locals with a sense of mistrust, drawing the occasional sympathiser to the militant cause, which, in turn, has allowed many in the army to suspect all locals, branding them “overground workers” of militant groups.
[…]

The Pir Panjal region has seen an unusual increase in militant attacks in the recent past, which are less frequent in the Kashmir Valley now. Six encounters left 21 soldiers dead in the Pir Panjal Valley in 2023. Ten more were killed in three separate attacks between May and July 2024. Following a major militant attack, both the army leadership and soldiers are expected to show that the situation has been dealt with. “The measure of achievement during a posting of an officer is ‘killing somebody,’ and they have to show how many they’ve killed and how many are still roaming,” a retired general, who had been posted in Kashmir, told me. “Add to this the ‘never say no’ culture of the army, and officers … pounce upon these helpless civilians for commendations, medals and promotions.”
[…]

“They started assaulting us immediately, without even asking any questions,” Farooq told me. “I lost consciousness soon. When we went there, Shaukat, Safeer, Shabeer and Riyaz were already laying there after the torture.” Lal said that soon after they entered Mastandra post, roughly twenty soldiers picked up wooden rods, with Singh watching. “They started by hitting us on our legs and stomach, only pausing occasionally to ask us where the militants had come from and where they had gone,” he told me. “We had not even heard of the attack at the time, much less about the whereabouts of the militants.” Safeer screamed that he was with the IB and that they could call his handler. The soldiers began hitting him more brutally after that, showering blows on his face and head. The 22 December violence targeted several people close to the army and the intelligence apparatus. Even if human rights was not a major concern for the Indian state, the fact that the army is eliminating assets of the government’s own agencies in Jammu and Kashmir should raise alarm bells in Delhi.

Irfaan, whom I spoke to after he had spent two weeks at a hospital, told me that the soldiers who came to pick him up had initially told him it would only be a quick ten-minute questioning. The moment he reached the post they pounced on him with lathis and metal pipes. “Shaukat and the others were already bleeding on the ground,” Irfaan recalled. “I pleaded with them in the name of Allah, but the man hitting me only smiled, taking out a knife and saying, ‘This is to gouge your eyes out with.’” Lal recalled that, when one of the wooden rods snapped, the men got a bamboo bar. When that broke, they brought a large pestle used to grind spices. Over the next hour, every large implement the battalion had was broken over the bodies of the nine men from Topa Peer. Lal remembered thinking it could not get worse.

Shehnaaz Akhtar, a relative of Shaukat’s, was grazing her sheep near the post when she heard horrific screams coming from the buildings. She then saw eight men being dragged outside the room. “I saw Shaukat being dragged to the water tank where four or five soldiers were holding his limbs and his head while drowning and smothering him in water,” Shehnaaz told me. “They were also electrocuting him.” Lal remembers that Safeer was dunked into the water next. A soldier held him upside down, with his head in the water. The water bubbled up and then went still when Safeer stopped shaking. “He died in front of my eyes,” Lal said. Shaukat was the next to die, with his pregnant wife watching from past the barbed wire fence. Shabeer was the last to die. “They took his body out of the water only after ensuring he was dead,” Lal told me.

[…]

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act does not give the army complete immunity for crimes such as murder, and the court of inquiry itself noted that the torture of civilians in this case was not in accordance with the law. What the court of inquiry as well as the WhatsApp chats describe are a series of cold-blooded murders and torture of several civilians that these officers had no grounds to suspect.

Given all this, the army should be proactive in ensuring its officers are tried before civilian courts. The FIR registered against the case only charges “unknown person-1” with Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to murder. It does not include any charges relating to kidnapping and illegal confinement, criminal conspiracy or torture with the purpose of murder. It also fails to include any charges under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which should have been included because nearly all victims come from the Gujjar community, a Scheduled Tribe in Jammu and Kashmir.
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ZAREENA BEGUM GOT A BROOM in exchange for her husband’s life. She had been appointed as a Class IV employee at the local dispensary, at Topa Peer. It was a temporary position; the government had only just relaxed the age and qualification requirements. The Jammu and Kashmir government had given the family some land, too, after Safeer was killed. But it was largely unusable—one kanal, or about five hundred square metres, on lease for forty years in a village called Potha.

The families of Shaukat and Shabeer had received parcels there too. To get there was a trek—an hour down the hill to Bafliaz, then a bus to Surankote, and then another further to Potha, twenty-two kilometres in total. The only man in the house was Safeer’s father, Mir Hussain, who is terminally ill. When his maladies would get severe, Safeer would carry him on his back down a treacherous path, a three-hour hike, to the nearest hospital. Without Safeer, they could barely reach Potha, much less farm any tract there. Without Safeer, they were stuck in Topa Peer.

The story rang similar to the other families that have lost lives. The two other women widowed that day had been pregnant at the time. Fatima, Shaukat’s widow, was struggling with her infant daughter, Tanzala Shaukat, when I met her. She kept repeating that the army men had promised that those responsible for her husband’s death would be tried. “Why have they not been punished even after one year?” she said. “We want justice and nothing else. They can keep the other things they are offering us.” Shabeer’s widow, Raqia Begum, spoke little, with the five-month-old Abrish Shabeer on her hip and another younger boy hiding behind her leg. “How am I going to raise them by myself?”

Topa Peer had become busy in the days after the torture. Five days later, Rajnath Singh, India’s defence minister, visited Rajouri and met the families of those who had been killed. Nazir, Shaukat’s father, was visited by the commanding officer of the 16 RR and a brigadier, who handed him Rs 10 lakh. Vali was given the same amount. He told me he did not know what to do with it. “We are labourers, and I have worked my whole life with the Border Roads Organisation,” he said. “I raised my children in extreme poverty and hoped, one day, they will take care of me when I get old.” The money would do little to help. Farooq got Rs 2.3 lakh, while Irfaan got Rs 1.5 lakh. Fazal was given Rs 2.5 lakh. Now barely able to walk, he told me the money was meaningless. “I have five kids and a family of seven to support. I don’t see myself being able to work ever again.” Multiple serving and retired army officers told me that this money likely came from military intelligence funds, which are usually unaccounted for.
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The police and the army were everywhere, ready with questions. As I returned, at Dera Ki Gali, an official of Subedar Major rank stopped my vehicle. “Major Rastogi had called,” he told me. “He said madam Jatinder would be crossing, from the media. He asked us to inform him when you move back.” After that, at every army barricade I crossed, they knew my name and where I was going. The scrutiny was getting worrying. I wondered how it must be for the families of the victims, living daily under those prying eyes—that could grow angry as quickly and suddenly as they grew benevolent. Topa Peer has seen too much of both. It has only failed to see justice.
— Jatinder Kaur Tur, The Caravan

BBC World Documentary on Radhe Maa

Radhe Maa is one of the few women in India's controversial phenomenon of ‘godmen’, who command large followings and claim to do miracles.

In Africa, Danger Slithers Through Homes and Fields

Snakes avoid people as diligently as people avoid them. They are shy, biting only when they perceive danger.

“They know you are useless prey,” said Dr. George Omondi, who heads the Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Center in Nairobi, the capital. “They would rather spend their venom on something they could eat.”

Cobras and mambas have short, erect fangs at the front of the mouth that inject neurotoxins under the skin, paralyzing the victims. A black mamba’s venom is so toxic that it can kill people or prey within an hour.

Cobra bites also demand immediate attention, but with treatment recovery can be dramatic, reversing symptoms like a tape running backward. Spitting cobras can shoot venom into their prey’s eyes from up to five meters away, or about 16 feet.

Puff adders are petite by contrast, as short as six inches and no longer than six feet, but very thick. They have long, retractable fangs that can deliver poison into muscle.

Their venom destroys blood-clotting factors, and victims die slow, gruesome deaths, bleeding in the brain, eyes and mouth.

To be effective, an antivenom should be tailored to the snake. Each species produces a special blend of dozens of toxins. Even within a species, the venom can vary by region, age, diet and season.

Antivenoms are no match for this complexity. They are still made much as they were 130 years ago: A small amount of venom is pumped into a horse or camel, and the antibodies produced in response are harvested and bottled.

Most products were never tested in clinical trials, or officially approved by the W.H.O.

Until 2023, the Kenyan market was rife with counterfeit or diluted antivenom. The country has now rid itself of Indian-made antivenom that was ineffective against local species. It has only one product sanctioned by the W.H.O.
— New York Times

The 100-hour War: India Versus Pakistan

In interviews to Reuters and Bloomberg news agencies on May 31, on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, General Anil Chauhan, who is the chief of defense staff (CDS) of the Indian armed forces, admitted that India’s military had been forced to modify its tactics after an unspecified number of Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter aircraft were shot down by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighters and missiles.

India has provided scant evidence to rebut expansive PAF claims of IAF losses. Talking to the media in Singapore on May 31, Chauhan admitted that the IAF had suffered an unknown number of casualties, but again offered no details.
— Ajai Shukla, The Diplomat

Remember how, until the general made his comments, no media house in India reported how many losses India suffered. While international media were talking about the fall of jets even during the conflict, debris of which fell on the Indian side of Kashmir itself, the Indian government at this point started to block Pakistani social media accounts, including those of their film and television stars. The only aim of this ban seems to be to keep the Indian public in the dark. Because at this very moment, Indian media was making the wildest claims of Indian military bombing and capturing Karachi, Lahore, etc. All of these claims were hilariously debunked by Pakistani social media users using memes and live pictures of them sipping tea at these very locations. But you could only see these accounts from outside India or with a VPN due to the Modi government banning these accounts. Combine this with back-to-back rallies and election speeches of Modi just after the ceasefire, mentioning how the operation was a grand success. It gives you a picture and aims ofthe recent flare-up. And in whose interest the Indian public was kept in the dark, by its government and its media.

India said early Wednesday that it had conducted several airstrikes on Pakistan, hailing a victory in the name of vengeance for the terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Kashmir last month.
But evidence was also growing that the Indian forces may have taken heavy losses during the operation. At least two aircraft were said to have gone down in India and the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir, according to three officials, local news reports, and accounts of witnesses who had seen the debris of two.
— New York Times, May 6


The four-day military clash between India and Pakistan was the most expansive fighting in half a century between the two nuclear-armed countries. As both sides used drones and missiles to test each other’s air defenses and hit military facilities, they claimed to inflict severe damage.
But satellite imagery indicates that while the attacks were widespread, the damage was far more contained than claimed — and appeared mostly inflicted by India on Pakistani facilities. In a new age of high-tech warfare, strikes by both sides appeared to be precisely targeted.
What is increasingly clear is that both sides suffered casualties among their armed forces, with India acknowledging the loss of five soldiers and Pakistan reporting 11. The heaviest blow to India appears to be the loss of aircraft. While the Indian government has not said how many went down, officials and diplomats say that at least two aircraft were lost, and most likely more.
— New York Times, May 14

What To Watch

Turkish Detective on Jio Hotstar

Evil on Jio Hotstar

This French Documentary on the Bhutto Family and the Bloody History of Pakistan (in English)

That’s it for this one. There’s a new variant of Covid around us with new symptoms, including loose motions. Keep your guard up, wear masks and be vigilant.