Abstract

With the world’s media attention focused on repression in Syria and the threat to the Euro, the Indian state of Kashmir, nestling in the shadow of the Himalayas, is in danger of becoming a forgotten conflict.

But in 2010 this Valley in the shadow of the Himalayas erupted in some of the most violent street protests it has ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of stone-throwing teenagers took aim at heavily armed Indian Security Force troops, who responded with live fire. 118 demonstrators were killed, many of them children. This was followed by a lock-down in which no one could get in or out of the state.

In among the rioters, to find out why they risked their lives, and accompanying a local human rights lawyer determined to investigate how India restored an uneasy peace, True Vision uncovers a state-sanctioned torture programme that has set India on a collision course with the international community.

Kashmiri lawyer Parvez Imroz has never filed a divorce or defended a thief. Instead, this veteran Supreme Court advocate has spent his entire legal career dressed in a grey morning suit and working pro-bono. Broke but determined, with two young children and a wife who complain he has yet to take them on a picnic, Imroz has always risked his life to keep the Indian authorities accountable in this disputed mountain state where, unseen by most of the world, an insurgency has rumbled on since 1989, claiming an estimated 70,000 lives.

As stone-wielding Kashmiri youth fought pitched battles with the Indian security forces, BAFTA -winning film-maker Jezza Neumann followed Imroz as he turned his attention to an even more incendiary project, probing how the Indian security forces drove the rioters off the streets and imposed peace, in one of the most heavily militarised places on earth.

Filmed, Directed & Edited by: Jezza Neumann Producer: Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark Executive Producer: Brian Woods Narrated by: Hugh Bonneville