Original version

BBC World Service Online

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: The Bhagalpur blindings

Documentaries

The Bhagalpur blindings

07/11/2019 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, The Bhagalpur blindings

How Indian police tortured petty criminals, blinding them permanently

How Indian police took the law into their own hands and tortured petty criminals, blinding them permanently. The so-called Bhagalpur blindings came to public attention in 1980.

WARNING: This programme contains distressing descriptions of violent torture from the beginning.

In 1980 police in a small city in the Indian state of Bihar were revealed to be torturing petty criminals. Iknoor Kaur has been talking to several people with first-hand experience of the disturbing events that came to be known as the Bhagalpur blindings. Ram Kumar Mishra was the lawyer who represented the victims, Amitabh Parashar made a documentary film about what happened, and Umesh Yadav was one of the victims who lost his sight at the hands of the police.

(Photo: Victim of the Bhagalpur blindings, Umesh Yadav. Copyright: Amitabh Parashar)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

The Bhagalpur blindings

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service