SRINAGAR: Makhan Din consumes pesticides inside a mosque after a night of alleged beatings in custody, as another civillian is shot dead by the army.
Makhan Din stands inside an empty mosque in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Kathua district to record his last video message on a mobile phone.
Wearing a skullcap and a blue-and-white sports jacket, the bearded 25-year-old says he is about to “sacrifice” his life so that no one else in the region is subjected to “torture” by the police, who suspected him of “being associated with militants”, the term authorities use for rebels fighting against Indian rule.
In the middle of the grainy four-minute video recorded on February 5, Din is seen picking a copy of the Quran from a shelf at his back and putting it on his head to pledge he had “never seen” any rebels as he recounts the horrors he endured in police custody the night before.
He then places the holy book back and takes out a plastic packet of pesticide from his pocket, his lips constantly praying to God.
“I will have to take this medicine out of compulsion and it will end my life. I will die so that other people will be saved after me. Oh Allah, accept my sacrifice. Keep my family happy, always, Oh Allah. Save me from the punishment of the grave … You watch everything … Send angels to take my soul from inside the mosque. Please forgive me,” he says as he switches off the phone camera.
