After hearing the horrific story of a specially-abled man’s torture in police custody, the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission asked the senior superintendent of police Kupwara to submit a detailed report about the incident.
Wali Mohammad (26) of Khurhama in Kupwara district narrated before a bench of SHRC how he was brutally tortured by police on April 5:
“I am disabled and remain mostly confined to my home. On April 5, police arrested me near my home and beat me at the police station. When I asked them the reason for beating me, they didn’t say anything and beat me more for 10-15 minutes.
“At 1 in the afternoon, the police called the SOG Dy SP and the SOG men took me to their residential quarters. There they stripped me naked and beat me again. They asked me why did I ‘raise a green flag on a tree.’ I told them that I was handicapped and rarely came out of home. How can I climb up the tree and raise the flag?
“Then they shifted me back to the police station where they tortured me till I fainted late in the evening.
“The next day the SHO and the munshi beat me again till I started bleeding from my mouth. Then the SHO asked the constables to get someone from my family to the police station.
“My brother Muhammad Akbar and two other people came to the police station. Seeing me half dead, they took me to a hospital in Sogam and the doctor there referred me to sub-district hospital Handwara. Seeing my condition, there the doctors referred me to a Srinagar hospital.”
Taking notice of the serious allegations of torture of the physically disabled man, the SHRC directed the SSP Kupwara to submit a report on the incident by May 14.