Fact-Check: Was a Kashmiri civilian tortured to death? Here are the facts.

Pak-based Handles took to X and claimed that a Kashmiri civilian, 27-year-old Muhammad Abid, had been tortured to death in police custody in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir.

An account by the name of Kashmir English posted a gruesome image and wrote: “Another Kashmiri civilian, 27-year-old Muhammad Abid, has been tortured to death in police custody in Ramban, This comes just a week after Mukhan Din faced the same fate in Kathua. India’s brutal occupation continues its cycle of extrajudicial killings, masked as natural deaths.”

In addition, several other handles made this claim and alleged similar facts. The preview link can be seen here, here and here.

Fact-Check

The DFRAC team investigated this claim and found it to be misleading. In reality, he was a theft accused who died after falling sick in police custody.

A keyword search on Google in this regard led us to the latest reports published by GreaterKashmir, Deccan Herald and The Tribune.
The reports stated that a 27-year-old man, who was picked up by police for his alleged involvement in several theft cases, died after falling sick while in police custody in the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir. The deceased, identified as Muhammad Abid, a resident of Thopal village in Batote, had been in police custody for several days before he reportedly complained of uneasiness in the lockup on Tuesday. Feb 18, 2025. According to officials, he was immediately shifted to Community Health Centre (CHC) Batote, where he later passed away.

Certainly, he was not tortured to death by the police.

Conclusion

DFRAC’s fact-check clearly shows that the viral claim shared by Pak-based handles is completely misleading since his death was related to the cause of deteriorating health and he was not tortured to death.

Analysis: Misleading