Then there is the case of Waheed Para. According to the Rapporteurs, Para was first threatened and later arrested, tortured, and humiliated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after he spoke to UNSC members in a closed virtual meet.
The Rapporteurs write that Waheed, who is the youth president of the PDP, was stripped, beaten, hung from his feet, and kept in a dark, underground space in sub-zero temperature.
Rapporteurs: Leading Lights
The account of his torture comes from 5 UN Rapporteurs — the UN’s designated Rapporteurs on torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, on arbitrary executions, and on protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
The Rapporteurs say the NIA only allowed Waheed to meet his lawyer once, and a relative on a separate occasion, all under surveillance.
That the government apparently has not responded to these very upsetting charges only gives credence to the points raised. That is regrettable, for the government could give its viewpoint.
For instance, some authorities as well as residents of Shopian say they are convinced, on the basis of video evidence and a sighting near Banihal, that Naseer Wani went underground and become a militant as soon as he left the forces’ camp to which he had been taken.
Conversations on the ground indicate that there is general wariness about protest or dissent, but not the sort of pall of death and horror that the letter might suggest.