The most heinous and inhuman torture of Captain Saurabh Kalia and his colleagues during Kargil war has been a gross violation of the Geneva Convention, which covers soldiers all over the world. I am not a legal pundit to either support or oppose the reported move by the government to refer the case to the International Court of Justice.
It is left to the government to decide what forum to pursue this breach of Geneva Convention. For me, it is a war crime. I was the Army Chief during the Kargil war when this brutality took place from the Pakistan side. Soon after the bodies of Capt Kalia and the rest of the patrol were received in the mutilated state, I asked the International Red Cross in Delhi to conduct a post-mortem. But they declined. The post-mortem at the Army Hospital confirmed the worst signs of torture on the body of Capt Kalia and his martyred colleagues.
As this was an international matter, we took up the tragic incident with the then Defence and External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh. The Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner was summoned by the MEA, spoken to and given a note expressing our anger on the torture meted out to the Indian soldiers in their custody, in violation of Geneva Convention.
I do not know why the government did not pursue this matter with the appropriate fora. I retired after a year of the war but I would still strongly argue for taking up this incident of torture of PoW soldiers with the appropriate forum.
Espousing our genuine cause at the right forum need not be compared with any alleged instances of torture elsewhere. This is a stand-alone case of mindless brutality of PoW while in custody. I visited the Kalias at Palampur. But I could only empathize with the bereaved family. What is important is that we should make all efforts to take this case to its logical conclusion so that such war crimes of torturing PoW soldiers do not recur.
