TORTURE LIFE OF KASHMIRI

Srinagar, Jan 16: In the dark and freezing pre-dawn hours of Saturday, Fayaz Ahmad Bhat of Inderkote was picked up by troops of 22 Rashtriya Rifles and taken to the house of Abdul Majid Parray, half a kilometer away from his residence. The troops told him to knock at the door and ask Majid to come out. He tapped at the door and said, “open the door, Majid.” Majid came out, eyes groggy. Both were blindfolded and bundled into separate vehicles and taken to a security camp where they were subjected to third degree torture. Fayaz last saw Majid in Sopur police station in a very critical state when troops handed them in to police. Lying moribund on a steel bed in smelly ward of SMHS hospital, Fayaz doesn’t know Majid is dead and was buried today in his native village Inderkote Sumbal amid a massive protest demonstration against army. A few relatives attending to him at hospital asked this reporter to show his I-Card before Fayaz could narrate his ordeal. “Army is running a reign of terror in the area so to avoid hassles we asked you to show us your identity card,” one of the elderly attendants told this reporter. His medical record under the column, Chief Complaints, reads: “Brought to casuality by Constable Basheer Ahmed, Belt No 30, Sopore. Perineal tear, induction of stick into anal canal and bruises over gluteal thigh.” Severe beating has left Fayaz’s hearing impaired. Every question has to be asked aloud. “A rod smeared with chilies was inserted into my rectum; my penis was given electric shocks; my limbs were beaten to pulp with a prickly stick,” Fayaz alleged while one of his attendants showed bruises on his swollen legs and feet. Moaning with aches and hardly able to move, Fayaz said, “I was whisked away to a nearby army camp and asked to confess that I was a militant. When I pleaded innocence they offered another option and wanted me to confess that I was harboring militants,” Fayaz, a carpet weaver, said. “They further told me that to avoid torture, I should confess either of the two options. When I didn’t they said ‘OK give us the pistol you have.’ But when I again pleaded innocence they started beating me like savages. “After some hours I heard army officials talking among each other that some protesting villagers were heading towards the camp. They asked me to board a vehicle and said ‘we will take you to Kupwara’,” Fayaz said. “At the new location,” Fayaz says, “I was forced to take up a gun in my hands and pose for a photograph. They even showed me the picture on the screen of the camera. After that they tortured me again. While I was distraught and lying flat on the ground, they forced me to drink water mixed with chilly powder. Then they would take turns and poked their boots into my belly till I spewed out the water. This continued till I fell unconscious.” Fayaz said he regained consciousness at Sopur police station on Saturday evening. “The police offered me water; I found Abdul Majid lying there in a similar condition. After this we were rushed to Srinagar for treatment,” he said. Fayaz and Parray were neighbours once. “I have been told that he (Parray) is being treated at SKIMS as he had more grievous injuries than me,” Fayaz says. Aside, the attendants told this reporter that Fayaz wasn’t informed about the death of Parray. “He is very traumatised as you can see so we thought not to trouble him with the news,” his brother said. Fayaz’s mother, Haja, a suffering from a cardiac disease, too is unaware of her son’s fate. “We told her Fayaz is in Srinagar for a routine medical checkup and will be back home tomorrow,” one of the attendants.