Rights group says India tortures terrorism suspects

WARNING: Article contains propaganda!

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Wed, 02 Feb 2011

New Delhi - Indian security forces have committed a range of rights violations including arbitrary arrest and torture in their counterterrorism campaigns, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The group focused a 106-page report on the aftermath of three deadly terrorist bombings in Indian cities in 2008, for which a group named the Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility.

After the bombings in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi, state police, often anti-terrorism squads, brought in scores of Muslims for questioning and labeled them anti-national, the report said.

"In some states, police held suspects for days, even weeks, without registering their arrest in an apparent effort to get them to confess," Human Rights Watch said.

"Many detainees alleged they were victims of torture, including the use of electric shocks," the New York-based rights group said.

"A released suspect held in a lock-up of the Ahmedabad Crime Branch of the Gujarat state police, where some of the worst abuses occurred, said the detainees were kept blindfolded and shackled with their arms crossed over their knees."

The report was based on 160 interviews with suspects, their relatives and lawyers, civil society activists, security experts and law enforcement officials, it said.

"Abuses of suspects in connection with the 2008 bombings occurred at every stage of custody, from police lock-ups where many were tortured, to jails where they were beaten, to courthouses where magistrates often ignored their complaints," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"Indian police are under tremendous pressure to identify the perpetrators of horrific attacks, but they need to do so without resorting to the use of arbitrary arrests and torture to coerce confessions," Gangly said.

Such abuses by Indian police, jail officials and other authorities might alienate people and the government should reform its justice system to ensure they do not happen, Human Rights Watch said.

It recommended the codification of a set of guidelines for arrests and detentions and full investigations into allegations of wrongdoing by police and other officials.

A spokesman for India's Home Ministry refused to comment on the report.

India has seen no major terrorist strikes since the November 2008 attack in Mumbai, but Home Minister P Chidambaram warned Tuesday that terrorist threats remained and India needed to keep its guard up against them.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/365480,india-tortures-terrorism-suspects.html.