World Notes India

The father of a 12-year-old boy accused of petty theft accompanies his son to the police station in New Delhi and is beaten to death by cops for no apparent reason. A young leftist said to have burned himself to death in Pondicherry is found to have been set afire, possibly while in custody and in handcuffs.

According to a report issued last week by the human-rights organization Amnesty International, these and other crimes were committed over the past seven years in India. Amnesty claims that torture in detention has been endemic in all 25 Indian states under the past four governments, and has resulted in at least 415 deaths since 1985. India rejected Amnesty's findings as "unfounded."