Indian army brutally tortures Gujjar tribesmen in Srinagar’s highlands
Srinagar: Amid growing incidents of beatings, torture, and collective punishment by Indian forces across Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, fresh reports have emerged of a brutal assault on nomadic Gujjar tribesmen by Indian army in the mountainous region of Srinagar.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the victims—Mohammad Liyakat, Mohammad Azam, Showkat Ahmad, and Abdul Qadir, all residents of Rajouri—were subjected to severe thrashing by personnel of 50 Rashtriya Rifles at a newly established army camp in Dhagwan, a forested high-altitude area near Srinagar.
The incident took place under the command of a senior army officer who led the assault and issued threats of eviction to the entire Gujjar community settled in the region for summer grazing.
Three victims who spoke with a web portal, The Wire, over phone said that they were segregated into two groups, of which one group comprising 10-15 men were “beaten up like animals” with heavy sticks , while others were thrashed.
The victims said that two Indian army soldiers held the victims by their arms while the superior official thrashed them “without showing any mercy”.
One of the victims, Liyakat, who suffered a fractured leg, said he was dragged to the camp where over 40 men were rounded up and interrogated. “I told them I had nothing to do with militants. In return, they said, ‘Go to Pakistan’,” he recounted.
Muhammad Yusuf, who received a beating, said that he pleaded with the army official to let go of Liyakat as he was going to be surgically operated on next week. He said that the officer didn’t listen and thrashed him anyway.
“Now my second leg is also broken,” a distraught Liyakat said. “I can’t even stand up and go to the bathroom. They should have shot me there instead of putting me through this ordeal.”
Javed Choudhary, a tribal leader and National Conference MLA from Budhal in Rajouri, condemned the assault as a blatant violation of human rights and demanded immediate registration of an FIR against the culprit Indian army officers. “Such atrocities against innocent people must end. If action is not taken, we will be forced to launch a mass agitation,” he warned.
The tribal community, which traditionally migrates with livestock between Jammu region to and the Kashmir valley, said they have been living peacefully in the area and had even helped build the army camp. “We served them tea and carried wood for their camp. Now they are treating us like enemies,” another victim, Muhammad Yousuf, said.
This is not the first instance of Indian troops targeting the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities. These repeated acts of violence, which are part of a broader pattern of repression unleashed after the abrogation of Article 370, have intensified the sense of fear and alienation among the local population.
In December 2023, three Gujjar men were tortured to death in Poonch, while others were maimed. In November the same year, four civilians were tortured in custody in Kishtwar.
Human rights defenders say such incidents have increased manifold since the Modi regime revoked occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5, 2019, and deployed more troops across the territory.
Zafar Choudhary, a Jammu-based political analyst, noted the rising alienation among Gujjars. “They feel they are being either specifically targeted or ignored as if their lives don’t matter,” he said.
Meanwhile, the police in Srinagar claimed they are trying to reach the victims to verify the allegations. However, the Indian army’s spokesperson has not responded to media queries, raising further questions about accountability and transparency in the territory.
