2,352 Kashmiri women martyred, 11,259 molested by Indian troops since 1989

Islamabad: The world is observing the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, today, while women in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir continue to be haunted by Indian state terrorism, injustice, atrocities, fear, agony and howls of pain inflicted by India.

According to a report released by Kashmir Media Service in connection with the day, India has designed its own legal license by draconian laws to target the sanctity and dignity of the Kashmiri women.

Particularly after August 05, 2019 illegal actions of the Narendra Modi-led government, the Indian army, paramilitary and police personnel have legal cover to openly pursue their evil agenda by targeting, detaining and passing derogatory remarks about the Kashmiri women while ignoring their social, political, economic, human and other rights.

The report said that 2,352 women had been martyred and 11,259 molested and disgraced by the Indian troops in the occupied territory since 1989. Indian state terrorism has rendered 22,967 Kashmiri women widowed in the past 34 years. It added that over two dozen women, including 64-year-old Aasiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen and Fehmeeda Sofi have been facing illegal detention in infamous Tihar Jail and other Indian prisons for the last over five years.

The report pointed out that India is using rape of women as a weapon of war in IIOJK to humiliate the Kashmiris and Kunanposhpora mass rape, Shopian double rape and murder and Kathua rape and murder incidents are its glaring examples. Around a hundred women were gang-raped by Indian troops during a cordon and search operation in Kunanposhpora area of Kupwara district on the night of February 23, 1991. Two women, Aasiya and Neelofar of Shopian, were abducted by Indian men in uniform on May 29, 2009, gang-raped and subsequently killed in custody. An 8-year-old Muslim girl, Aasifa Bano was repeatedly gang raped by Indian policemen and communal Hindus affiliated with rightwing organizations in Kathua area of Jammu in January 2018.

The report said the Kashmiri women were mentally tortured through killing, arresting and enforced disappearances of their loved ones. The world human rights bodies need to come forward to restrict India from committing heinous crimes and gross human rights violations against the Kashmiri women, it stressed.

Meanwhile, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders, Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja and Farida Bahenji in their separate statements appealed to the international community to intervene and use its influence in halting the ongoing Indian state terrorism, injustice and atrocities on the women in IIOJK.