‘India using rape of Kashmiri women as war weapon in IIOJK’

Hurriyat leaders, civil society members and High Court Bar Association of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have expressed solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiri women on the International Women’s Day, today.

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference spokesman in a statement in Srinagar said that the International Women’s Day has no significance for the Kashmiri women as they continue to face victimization at the hands of Indian troops in IIOJK. He said that women had been used as a weapon of war by India in IIOJK. He pointed out that from Kunan Pooshpora to Shopian double rape and murder, there were many examples of humiliation of womenfolk in the occupied territory.

The spokesman said that besides sexual violence, the Kashmiri women had been suffering psychological and physical horrors at the hands of brutal Indian troops. He said that there are thousands of women who have no information about the whereabouts of their husbands subjected to enforced disappearance by Indian troops since 1989.

APHC leader Syed Bashir Andrabi in a statement issued in Srinagar said that Modi-led fascist India is using Kashmiri women as a war weapon in the occupied territory. He pointed out that the Indian troops frequently target women to weaken the Kashmiris’ spirit for freedom. He hoped that the day is not far when the people of Kashmir would enjoy freedom as the result of sacrifices of the Kashmiri women.

The High Court Bar Association spokesman G N Shaheen Advocate in a statement in Srinagar demanded the release of detained Kashmiri women including Aasiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen ,Fahmeda Sofi from India’s Tehar Jail and half a dozen others languishing in different jails for political reasons. The Bar spokesman asked local and international women organizations to impress upon Indian to release immediately the jailed Kashmiri women.

The Chairperson of Peace and Culture Organisation, Mushaal Hussein Mullick, in a video message on International Women’s Day took up the plight of Kashmiri women and said that the most vulnerable and disgraced women, today, are the Kashmiri women who are facing the worst trauma inflicted by the Indian troops in IIOJK.

Mushaal, who is wife of JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik, added that rape is used as weapon of war everyday in IIOJK. Referring to Kunanposhpora, she said how women were raped by the troops. She asked the world to wake up from the deep slumber and raise its voice for the hapless Kashmiri women.