In Jammu, alleged Army torture leaves a remote village rattled

Until the evening of November 20, the people of Kishtwar’s remote Kwath village in Jammu region had very little reason to be afraid of the Army.

Almost every day, soldiers seek out local residents, most of whom are illiterate, for odd jobs – from doing paid labour to arranging food supplies.

But on November 20, four residents of the village were summoned to a nearby Army camp, where they were allegedly tortured.

The village residents fear that more punishment awaits them.

“There’s a rumour that the Army has a list of 40 people from this village,” said Dawood Ahmad, a worried resident of Kwath.

“We heard that this is just the beginning.”

A little over a year ago, three men were killed in Jammu’s Poonch district after they were allegedly picked up for interrogation and tortured to death by Army personnel – a day after a militant ambush had killed five soldiers.

The phone calls from an Army camp

In recent months, a series of militant attacks has kept Kishtwar district on the edge, and led to a crackdown by the Army.

On November 20, four residents from Kwath village got individual calls on their phones from the Army camp in Chas area.

“But when the four of them did not return by evening, some villagers went...

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