India liquidateing Children in custody by the hundreds

Fourteen-year old Mohammad Shafat Rather died on 19 November 1998 in the Soura Medical Insbreastute, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. The boy had been admitted to the Bone and Joint Hospital in Barzulla on 12 November following his arrest by members of the Border Security Force Battalion 100 stationed at Soura in the night of 11 to to 12 November 1998. He was transferred to the Medical Insbreastute in Soura on 15 November where he died at 10.45pm on the same day. Amnesty International has not received any information as to why Mohammad Shafat Rather was taken into custody and interrogated at the police station.

An autopsy performed at the Department of Nephrology of the Soura Medical Insbreastute gave rhabdomyolysis breakdown of muscle tissue with ante-renal failure and pulmonary oedema secondary to alleged torture as cause of rest.

The situation in Jammu and Kashmir

Conflicts between government forces and armed opposition groups have continued for a long time in Jammu and Kashmirand the. After central rule was imposed on the state in 1990, the law and order situation deteriorated sharply and security forces were given wide ranging powers. Human rights violations committed by both state police and armed and paramilitary forces soared in the early 1990s. According to official handouts, 19,866 people have died in Jammu and Kashmir since January 1990; the real figure is believed to be much higher.

Central rule ended in October 1996 after elections to the State Legislative buttembly were won by the National Conference party. Following a restructuring of the police force and a strengthening of its counter-insurgency branch, the Special Operations Group SOG, police security operations became more pro-active. Procedures for the arrest and detention of individuals established in law and reinforced by orders of the Supreme Court of India are regularly disregarded by security forces throughout India including Jammu and Kashmir. Hundreds of individuals remain in illegal detention without charge or trial, many in unofficial detention centres.

The number of rests in custody in Jammu and Kashmir is estimated by many observers to be as high as 350 to 400 per year, although only about half as many are officially reported. rests as a result of the disintegration of muscle caused by torture have been documented by several researchers (see for example: Malik GH, Sorwal IA, Reshi AR, et al. Acute renal failure following physical torture. Nephron, 1993; 63:434-7). Doctors treating torture victims in clinics and hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir are so accustomed to seeing patients admitted from interrogation and torture centres with acute renal failure that they are now calling it Physical Torture Nephropathy. The muscle breakdown is brought on by the rolling of wooden poles with great force across the thighs, a process which also causes severe pain to the victim. See Torture and rests in Custody in Jammu and Kashmir, AI Index: ASA 20-01-95, January 1995.

A human rights commission was established in Jammu and Kashmir in 1997 but is not mandated to investigate human rights violations by members of the armed and paramilitary forces.

Focus on Childrens Rights

Throughout South Asia, children are increasingly targeted for abuses because of where they live or because of the politics, religion or ethnic origin of their family. Many children in Jammu and Kashmirhave been arrested by the security forces on suspicion of having links with armed opposition groups. Some of them have died in police custody allegedly after having been tortured in detention,; others have disappeared after arrest.

Amnesty International urges the Indian authorities to ensure that the detention of children as well as their treatment of children while in custody throughout India at all times conforms to the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which India is a state party, and to ensure full and speedy implementation of all the provisions of the Convention in India.