Assam forces accused of waterboarding detainees

Guwahati, India – On the evening of January 9, a police crew headed by officer Ranjit Hazarika raided the home of 1 Hasen Ali of No. 2 Atakata village in Mangaldoi district of the Disclose of Assam in India’s northeast.

Suspecting him of possessing illegal arms, the police barged into his home in the useless of evening and looked for the weapons but couldn’t glean any.

Hasen, who labored as a migrant employee in the southern insist of Karnataka, currently came advantage home with his wife and three young folk, including an toddler. The 40-year-feeble used to be the one real real breadwinner for the family.

Hasen’s wife Jamiran Nessa if truth be told helpful Al Jazeera that her husband used to be dragged out of the home and on the least four policemen pinned him down in the courtyard and kicked him indiscriminately.

« Police lined his face with a material and poured icy water on his face. He vomited and fainted after a whereas, » Nessa, 35, said.

Police introduced him to Mangaldoi Civil Health center around 12km from his home, the build a doctor declared him « introduced useless ».

Subsequent morning when the tips of Hasen’s demise unfold, a dapper number of villagers gathered and protested in opposition to the police atrocities, and demanded justice. At least one individual died when police opened fire on the agitated crowd of about 5,000 folk.

Torture technique

Ainuddin Ahmed, a student activist from Darrang district, claims that waterboarding is a widely practiced torture technique venerable by the Assam Police as section of their infamous « 0.33 stage », or torture practices, in police custody to extract data from detainees.

Police lined his face with a material and poured icy water on his face. He vomited and fainted within a whereas

Jamiran Nessa

Ainuddin’s organisation, the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU), works for victims of police atrocity and persecution of minorities.

« Tens of thousands of good Indian Muslims of Assam were stressed on the pretext of being illegal immigrant from Bangladesh and additional than 2,000 of them are build up in detention camps all the way in which thru the insist, » Ainuddin, trendy secretary of AAMSU, said.

Aman Wadud, a felony real basically based in the insist capital Guwahati who offers a pro-bono staunch relief to the victims of insist persecution and centered violence, says police actions in opposition to Muslims are regularly harsh.

« Police possess consistently been uncharitable in direction of Muslims of Assam; it has a undeniable and without a doubt harsh parameter to tackle Muslims. Every time Muslims squawk for his or her rights, the police forces hardly ever hesitate to start firing, » he if truth be told helpful Al Jazeera.

‘Guilty will likely be punished’

Assam police chief assured that these responsible of Hasen’s demise will likely be punished.

« He has died in police custody, already a case has been registered, the person (police officer) has been arrested and despatched to judicial custody and the investigation is on, » Mukesh Sahay, the director trendy of police in Assam, if truth be told helpful Al Jazeera.

« The investigation will glean out what the insist off of demise used to be. If his guilt is established he’ll be punished as per regulation. »

Sahay admitted there used to be a need for the « practicing and sensitisation » of the police force and strict « enforcement » of regulation.

« If anybody violates the regulation he’ll be punished below the same regulation, straightforward. Our precept is zero tolerance, [if] anybody violates, take hold of circulation, » he said.

Nonetheless safety forces in the insist has no longer consistently followed the guideline book.

Two days after the custodial demise of Hasen, a journalist from a local satellite tv for computer television channel, Swarupjyoti Chetia, used to be picked up by safety forces in a lifeless evening raid at his role in Dibrugarh district of Assam.

Chetia used to be accused of passing principal data about an air force space and other authorities installations in the home to the banned insurrection outfit United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).

The facts channel alleged that Chetia used to be subjected to torture all the way in which thru detention, including pouring icy water on his physique in the midst of the frosty climate evening.

Security forces nonetheless, released him subsequent day owing to tremendous squawk and avenue blockade by the villagers in opposition to the « arbitrary detention and torture ».

‘My lifestyles has been destroyed’

Police officer Hazarika has been accused of the utilize of waterboarding earlier than to win confession from detainees.

Closing September Hazarika picked up one Ambas Ali of Borbari Sonowa village from a tea-stall below Dhula police space in Darrang district.

If anybody violates the regulation he’ll be punished below the same regulation, straightforward. Our precept is zero tolerance, [if] anybody violates, take hold of circulation

Mukesh Sahay, Assam police chief

Ambas, who lost his land in river erosion, now manages his family by shopping goats and other cattle from nearby villages and sells them in the native market.

He says police first took him to the police space and then to yet any other safe 22 situation the build police planted a pistol below his belt earlier than he used to be photographed.

Ambas says he used to be then introduced advantage to the police space the build he used to be blindfolded, pinned down and held tightly by loads of policemen, some of them sat on his chest and belly. They then placed a material on his face and poured water over it.

« Infrequently 1/2 a minute to 1 minute, I could perhaps well reside on but then lost my senses. After I regained my senses, they did the same thing all yet again and requested me to admit that the pistol used to be mine, » Ambas if truth be told helpful Al Jazeera.

« I will’t demonstrate what I suffered. …I believed, I would no longer reside on…. My lifestyles has been destroyed….. »

Gigantic public outcry

Waterboarding, or simulated drowning, absolute most sensible became widely identified after it used to be revealed that the US see company CIA had been subjecting suspects to it in the wake of eleventh of September.

Then all yet again, the torture technique to extract data from the detainees dates advantage to many of of years.

In licensed times, there used to be a nice public outcry in the US after it came to light that US troopers had been the utilize of ‘water’ to torture, infamously identified as « water drugs » in opposition to the Filipinos in Philippine-American War (1899-1902).

And in the gradual 1950s, French military venerable waterboarding in opposition to the Algerians suspected to be contributors of FLN (National Liberation Front).

Most currently, the CIA employed waterboarding as one of their « Enhanced Interrogation Tactics »in Guantanamo Bay penal advanced camp to extract data from detainees.

Per a recent ogle published by the National Regulation University, Delhi, Eighty two.6 p.c prisoners had been tortured in police custody

 

Then all yet again, a US Senate Intelligence Committee file file highlighted the non-efficiency of torture as a instrument of interrogation.

Between 1994 and 2008, India recorded Sixteen,836 custodial deaths or extra than 1,203 folk per year but successive governments were denying torture as a insist off of custodial demise.

Per a recent oglepublished by the National Regulation University, Delhi, Eighty two.6 p.c prisoners had been tortured in police custody.

The National Human Rights Charge’s annual file 2013-14 says that it had bought intimation of 1,719 conditions of custodial demise all the way in which thru the overview interval.

Assam police chief Sahay claims that in recent years the greater number of custodial deaths is thanks to yet any other technical causes fancy « mob violence » and « lynching », no longer police torture.

Then all yet again, look at scream a undeniable tale; a file released by Human Ethical Peep said that extra than 590 detainees died in police custody between 2010 and 2015 in India. And no police officers had been convicted all the way in which thru that interval.

The file documented individual conditions of custodial torture, demise and impunity, including the apply of waterboarding.

UN Conference in opposition to Torture

Kirity Roy of Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), an organisation working in opposition to torture and additional-judicial killing, India has signed but no longer yet ratifed the 1997 UN Conference in opposition to Torture.

The South Asian nation is one of absolute most sensible nine international locations worldwide which would be yet to ratify the treaty and discontinue a regulation in opposition to torture.

Roy has confronted arrest for working in opposition to torture and atrocities meted out by armed forces in Assam.

He said that waterboarding is noteworthy one of loads of torture ways venerable by police in the northeastern insist.

The draft Torture Bill has many solid aspects – the presumption of torture when there is damage whereas in custody, recognising each and every physical and psychological torture, and deterrent punishment

Harsh Mandar, human rights activist

In 2010, the then authorities presented the Prevention of Torture Bill, which grossly lost sight of torture ways, equivalent to waterboarding.

Article 1 of the UN Conference defines torture as an act of « severe wretchedness or struggling, whether or no longer physical or mental » but the Indian invoice outlined torture as « low injure » or « possibility to lifestyles, limb or health ».

It declined to recognise some of the brutal and inhuman torture ways, which win no longer go physical marks, thus ceased to be a punishable crime.

Torture ways, equivalent to waterboarding and sleep deprivation, are identified as « clear torture », as these win no longer go physical marks but these are most brutal and inhuman in nature.

Closing year, the Supreme Court docket described torture as an instrument of « human degradation » venerable by the insist.

In October, the Regulation Charge of India, the absolute most sensible recommendatory physique on regulation willing the draft « Prevention of Torture Bill, 2017 », widening the definition of torture, which would quilt clear torture, including waterboarding, and made provision of stringent punishment including lifestyles term, compensation, and burden of proof on the accused in case of custodial demise.

Activists and lecturers welcomed the draft invoice as modern.

« The draft Torture Bill has many solid aspects – the presumption of torture when there is damage whereas in custody, recognising each and every physical and psychological torture, and deterrent punishment, » Harsh Mander, author and Special Video display to National Human Rights Charge, said.

« We would tranquil must invent systems to be ready to give protection to a sufferer as he seeks justice in opposition to an all-highly efficient good machine. »

Sanjay Barbora, who heads the college of Social Sciences and Humanity at Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Guwahati, also welcomed the recent Prevention of Torture Bill but shared his considerations about rules equivalent to Armed Forces Special Energy Act (AFSPA), which grant immunity to safety forces.

Within the final six a long time, the « custom of impunity » enjoyed by the armed forces has « contaminated » the insist police forces as neatly, who on the total win no longer possess safety below AFSPA », said Sanjoy Hazarika, director of the Frequent Wealth Human Rights Initiative.