New Delhi, June 11 :
The Indian military establishment today brought in a representative of the Indian Red Cross to stress that its charge against Pakistan ? of having tortured six soldiers to death and mutilated their bodies ? was not without basis.
Foreign minister Jaswant Singh, his voice choked with anger, said this brutality would be part of the dialogue with Pakistani foreign minister Sartaj Aziz when he arrives here tomorrow.
India had yesterday accused Pakistan of returning six bodies that ? on preliminary examination ? seemed disfigured. The bodies were flown in from Leh to Delhi last evening. This morning, the post-mortem was carried out in the presence of the Red Cross representative and the head of the department of forensic medicine of Safdarjung hospital.
The bodies showed different marks of torture. Eyes had been gouged out in the case of a few, nose and ears had been chopped off in one or two and genitals snipped in more than one body. All the men had been bled to death.
Islamabad has denied the torture charge, saying it was an attempt to ?malign? Pakistan and its armed forces.
There was suspicion yesterday that these men had been tortured by Afghan Mujahideens. But today, the post-mortem report suggested that the men ? ambushed on May 14 ? were alive till the beginning of June. This means the soldiers had endured torture like cigarette burns for days. The real savagery could have lasted two to three days, from the end of May to early June. It is doubtful if the Mujahideens held them till then.
So, as the Indian government hints very strongly, the Pakistan army could be responsible for the ?slow and torturous killing of these prisoners of war?.
Jaswant Singh said as a former major he felt this was an ?outrage? and that he felt ?personally violated?. He demanded Islamabad take strong action against the perpetrators of this crime. He did not reveal the precise nature of the injuries, keeping in mind the sentiments of their families.
Without mentioning names, he said in the case of one, the skull had been repeatedly hammered with a blunt instrument till the brain tissues had come out. In the case of another, the left eye had been slowly eviscerated with a sharp weapon. He did not refer to the specific cases where the genitalia had been dismembered.
These six soldiers included Lieutenant Saurabh Kalia, who had led the troops into unknown territory when intelligence failed to report on the intruders having taken up vantage positions on the Indian side in early May.
India does not want to release photographs because it feels they are too ?hideous and gruesome? and might demoralise the army. But some media managers in the army feel photographs will have a greater impact in the West than Singh?s choked voice.





