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Indian Soldier Who Accidentally Crossed LoC Says He Was Beaten And Tortured By Pak Soldiers

Chandu Babulal Chavan was handed back to India by Pakistan on 21 January.
ANI/ Twitter

Chandu Babulal Chavan, a soldier in the Indian Army soldier who had accidentally crossed the Line of Control (LoC) last September, said that he was brutally tortured and beaten during his four-month captivity in Pakistan.

According to a report in the Times Of India, Chavan, who met his family in Amritsar for the first time after being released, told them that he was beaten and tortured severely by Pakistani soldiers and regularly injected with drugs.

"They used to inject some drugs into his body regularly. They were quite persistent while trying to get details about his reason for crossing the Line of Control [LoC]," Bhushan, Chandu's brother, who is also an army jawan posted at Jamnagar in Gujarat, told TOI. "They were trying to get information about the creation of the Indian Army's base along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir," he added.

Bhushan also said that his brother had several injury marks on the fingers of his right hand and he could not recall many things because of the drugs he had been injected with.

"He also has minor injuries on his face and is struggling to walk," Bhushan said.

Reacting to Chavan's allegations, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre reportedly said, "What else can we expect from Pakistan? Though I have personally not seen Chavan's injuries, we cannot rule out the possibility of his torture."

On being asked if the Indian government will take stern action against Pakistan, Bhamre refused to comment. "It will not be appropriate to comment on this aspect at this juncture," he replied. "The army has its own internal system and we should not interfere in their functioning."

Chavan was posted with the 37 Rashtriya Rifles when he had crossed over to the Pakistani territory in the Mendhar sector of Jammu and Kashmir, hours after India launched a surgical strikes across the Line of Control on the night of 29 September. He was released four months later on 21 January.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.