The Bhagalpur blindings
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2019
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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)
Transcript
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| 1:16.0 | I'm Nurkor and today I'm taking you back to India in 1980 and a story that shocked the world when it was discovered that police in a small |
| 1:25.2 | city in Bihar were torturing petty criminals. I've been talking to several people with |
| 1:30.6 | first-hand experience of the disturbing events that came to be known as the |
| 1:34.9 | Baghalpur blindings and a warning. This program contains graphic details of violence and |
| 1:40.9 | torture from the beginning. |
| 1:43.0 | Once on my way to school in 1980, |
| 1:47.0 | I saw a man crying for help and some people |
... |
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