Subjugation And Torture That Thrills And Excites

Suffering humiliation at the hands occupying forces is a part and parcel of the Kashmiri life be it in Kashmir or a railway compartment somewhere in the plains of India. Kashmiris have realized and understood well that all Indians (with rare exceptions) are oblivious to the sufferings of Kashmiris even though the same Indians share the pain and are even over sympathetic to the issue of Kashmiri Pandits, who when they migrated from the Valley in 1989 formed not more than 3% of the total Kashmiri population.

The Indians cry hoarse about the Kashmiri Pandit issue but they are quite, as if someone pressed the mute button, when it is proved beyond doubt that the Indian forces do kill innocents in Kashmir.

The reasons have baffled many a Kashmiris for long, one reason could be that the Indians feel ‘thrilled’ and ‘excited’ about the presence of guns-and-goons in the form of Indian security forces in Kashmir.

An Indian woman who had recently traveled to Kashmir had this to say about the presence of security forces in Kashmir:

the security presense (sic) is there everywhere it is thrilling and mostly exciting.

This is what The Toronto Star wrote on 25th January, 1991, about the Indian armed forces.

“Subjugated, humiliated, tortured and killed by the 650,000-strong Indian army, the people of Kashmir have been living through sheer hell for more than a year, the result of an increasingly brutal campaign of state repression. India hides behind its carefully-crafted image of “non-violence” and presents itself in international forums as a model of democracy and Pluralism.”

The role, behavior and actions of the security forces has not changed much since 1991, it’s just that today their presence is ‘thrilling’ and ‘exciting’ to the Indians.

A further look at what the Indian security forces who thrill and excite Indians do to the Kashmiris, as documented by the Human Rights Watch.

I was only a boy at that time. They would strip me, make my lie naked on the floor, kick and beat me, split my legs wide apart and leave me tied up like that for hours. When I thought I could not bear any more pain, they would give me electric shocks. Then they would let me go and a few weeks later, again. The same thing.

The men were from the army but they were in plainclothes. I was taken to a Rashtriya Rifles camp near my house… My hands were always tied behind my back. I was beaten and kicked. Twice, I was made to lie down on the floor with my hands and legs stretched out and tied up. I was badly beaten.

The soldiers were brutal. I was kept blindfolded most of the time, unless I had to go to the toilet. My hands were tied with rope at night. I was tied to a chair and questioned. They asked if I knew this militant or that. I kept saying I was innocent…I wish I could tell you how much I suffered. They cut my thighs open with a knife and then they would keep poking at the wound to try and make me talk.

The thrills and the excitement!

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