Military History of The North-West Frontier - Treatment of POWs

Treatment of POWs

The British officer John Masters recorded in his autobiography that Pathan women in the North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955) of British India during the Anglo-Afghan Wars would castrate non Muslim soldiers who were captured, like British and Sikhs. They also used an execution method involving urine, where Pathan women urinated into prisoners' mouths. Captured British soldiers were spread out and fastened with restraints to the ground, then a stick, or a piece of wood was used to keep their mouth open to prevent swallowing. Pathan women then squatted and urinated directly into the mouth of the man until he drowned in the urine, taking turns one at a time. There is an incident mentioned when a Hindu man was brutally raped by a gang of Pashtun women, before they drowned him in their urine. This method of execution was reported to have been practiced specifically by the women of the Afridi tribe of the Pashtuns.