RAWALPINDI: The secret report compiled by the International Committee of the Red Cross about the treatment being meted out to Pakistani POWs in Indian camps contains harrowing and hair-raising details of the inhuman atrocities being perpetrated on them. The “Washington Post” ... has published an article by Mr Milton Benjamin, its Washington Bureau correspondent, in which it has been disclosed that the prisoners were not only mercilessly beaten but were also bitten by Army dogs, besides a large number of them being murdered in cold-blood.

The writer further states that nails of POWs were pulled out, they were hung by their feet for hours, burned by cigarettes, deprived of pyjamas and ground clothes … forced to lie down in burning sun for hours, besides being denied water and food for several days... . The writer has credited his information to a secret report compiled by … the ICRC... . These punishments, said the writer, were being described by the Indian camp commanders as “light” for “what the POWs have done” namely, attempt to escape. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2022