India targeting women to suppress Kashmiris’ freedom struggle

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops are deliberately targeting the Kashmiri women to suppress the Kashmiris’ ongoing struggle for securing freedom from India’s illegal occupation of their soil.

An analytical report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said Kashmiri women are the worst victims of Indian state terrorism in IIOJK and they have faced harassment, abuse and sexual violence at the hands of Indian forces for the last over seven decades particularly since 1989 when the Kashmiris intensified their freedom struggle.

The report pointed out that the Kashmiri women are raped, dragged out and sometimes beaten mercilessly by the troops especially during cordon and search operations in the occupied territory. It cited the recent incident in which Indian Army personnel assaulted a family during a CASO in Tral area of Pulwama. The troops broke into Seer Jageer village in Tral and ruthlessly beat up members of a family including woman on Monday night.

The report said that Indian forces are using rape as a tool to humiliate the Kashmiris and intimidate them into submission. It said that the forces’ personnel have raped 11,246 women since January 1989 till date in IIOJK and Kunanposhpora mass rape and Shopian double rape and murder case are glaring examples of barbarity of Indian forces in the occupied territory. Indian troops had molested around 100 women during a siege and search operation in Kunanposhpora area of Kupwara district on the night of 23 February 1991. Indian men in uniform abducted two women Aasiya and Neelofar on 29 May 2009 in Shopian, raped and subsequently killed them in custody. Their bodies were found in a shallow stream in the town, next morning.

The report said that Indian troops and police personnel are enjoying complete impunity for their brutal actions as not a single soldier or policeman has been punished for sexual abuses of Kashmiri women.

It said that Indian’s illegal occupation on Jammu and Kashmir is the main cause of victimization of women in IIOJK. It added that the world community must hold India accountable for its atrocities especially for using rape as a weapon of war in IIOJK.