Blood On My Hands

'You are here to catch militants so you have to catch militants. This is your business. You can't say I have a budget of only 30000 so I can't catch them.'

This anonymous confession by an army officer splits wide open the anatomy of staged encounters in India's northeast and explains how awards and citations are linked to a body count. Speaking to investigative journalist and conflict specialist Kishalay Bhattacharjee the confessor tells of the toll this brutality has taken on him.

An essay by Bhattacharjee and a postscript that analyses the hidden policy of extra-judicial killings and how it threatens India's democracy contextualize this searing confession. An explosive document on institutionalized human rights abuse.