Rawalpindi experiments

The experiments involving use of Mustard gas carried out on hundreds of Indian soldiers by the British scientists from Porton Down [1].

Experiments were carried out before and during the second world war in a military installation at Rawalpindi, now in Pakistan. [2] [3].

The experiments were done to determine the effects of mustard gas, now known to be highly carcinogenic. Experiments began in the early 1930s and lasted more than 10 years. The Guardian reported, citing The National Archives documents.

The tests caused large numbers of burns, some of which were so damaging the subjects had to be hospitalized. "Severely burned patients are often very miserable and depressed and in considerable discomfort, which must be experienced to be properly realized," the report said.

According to documents at the British National Archives in London, British army scientists and doctors tested the effects of mustard gas on Indian soldiers for over a ten-year period. Beginning in the early 1930s, scientists at Rawalpindi sent Indian soldiers, wearing only shorts and cotton shirts, into gas chambers to experience the effects of mustard gas. The scientists hoped to determine the appropriate dosage to use on battlefields. Many of the subjects suffered severe burns from their exposure to the gas. No long term effects of exposure were documented or studied.[4]

These inhuman and gruesome tests caused large numbers of burns, some of which were so damaging that the subjects had to be hospitalized. According to the report "Severely burned patients are often very miserable and depressed and in considerable discomfort, which much be experienced to be properly realized,". [5]

The patients were treated at the Indian Military Hospital Rawalpindi now known as the Military Hospital. The exact place where the British Military facility with gas chambers was located in Rawalpindi needs to be ascertained to fill up the gaps in historical record.

The experiments in Rawalpindi were part of a much larger program intended to test the effects of chemical weapons on humans. More than 20,000 British servicemen and women were subjected to chemical warfare trials between 1916 and 1989 at the Defense Ministry's Porton Down research center in southwest England.

References

The Guardian [6]

USA Today[7]

British National Archives