Indian authorities widely used torture during interrogation of detainees in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and American diplomats were aware of this since 2005, but remained silent. This is evidenced by published by WikiLeaks materials , The Guardian newspaper writes on December 16 .

The Americans, in turn, received data from the Red Cross. In 2005, the organization notified them that between 2002 and 2004, its employees visited various places of detention 177 times, found 1,491 prisoners there and spoke with almost all of them on condition of anonymity.

In 852 cases, detainees reported being “ill-treated,” with nearly 700 tortured using a variety of methods, including hanging from the ceiling, electric shock, stretch marks, waterboarding, and sexual assault in more than 300 cases.

The diplomats' correspondence shows that for many years they preferred not to talk about what they heard. One of the notes contains statements about the improvement of the situation recently: Indian intelligence services have stopped carrying out unfounded arrests in populated areas at night.

The Red Cross also prefers to keep its data private, consulting with world governments behind closed doors.

The Guardian notes that the WikiLeaks publication has put India in a difficult situation, as the country prides itself on being the world's largest democracy.

Kashmir has remained a tense region since 1949, when it was divided between India and Pakistan. In 1989, Delhi decided to increase its influence in the region and stationed troops in populated areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, local separatists have regularly staged demonstrations against Indian authorities.

WikiLeaks accuses India of committing torture in Kashmir