“We know these forests like our home,” said Baseer Khan, who owns a shop in the main market of Bufliaz town in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district. “We were never afraid, but now, that has changed.”
On December 21, near one of those forests Khan spoke about, two vehicles of the Indian Army were attacked by militants. Four soldiers were killed and two soldiers injured as they were on their way to Thanamandi in Rajouri district.
What followed has led to a sense of dread in Khan and other residents of this region.
The morning after the attack, around nine villagers from Topa Peer village in Bufliaz – some six kilometers from the site of the attack – were picked up by Army personnel, accompanied by police officials in plain clothes, said villagers.
The same day, the Army also picked up five more civilians from Panghai village in Rajouri, some 15 km from the site of attack towards Thanamandi.
By evening, three of the nine civilians picked up from Topa Peer village were dead.
In a matter of a few hours, a series of horrifying videos emerged on the internet. One of the videos showed men in camouflage trousers beating civilians with rods and then pouring chilli powder on their bruised buttocks.
Villagers and relatives of the three victims told Scroll that the men being beaten up in the video were among those picked up from Topa Peer village on December 22.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here .