The miseries and victimization of Kashmiri women by the Indian troops and police personnel continue unabated in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
This was revealed by a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of the Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day, today. The Day is observed on both sides of the Line of Control every year to pay tribute to the struggles and sacrifices of the survivors of mass rape and torture in Kunanposhpora. The call for the observance of the day as Women’s Resistance Day was, first, given by the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and supported by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference in 2014.
Indian troops had gang-raped around 100 women of all ages from eight to eighty years old on the night of February 23 in 1991 during a siege and search operation in Kunanposhpora in the Kupwara district.
The report maintained that at least 682 women have been martyred by Indian troops from January 2001 till date Feb 2023. It pointed out that since January 1989, the unabated Indian state terrorism rendered 22,957 women widowed while Indian forces’ personnel have molested 11,256 women. It said that thousands of women lost their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers in the occupied territory who were subjected to custodial disappearance by Indian Army, police, and paramilitary personnel.
The report pointed out that over two dozen women and girls including Hurriyat leaders, Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi, and Naheeda Nasreen, were facing illegal detention in different jails of IIOJK and India. They are being victimized only for the reason that they represent the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their demand for the right to self-determination, it said.
The report deplored that despite the passing of thirty-two years, justice continues to elude the victims while the troops involved in heinous crimes are roaming free. It said that the memories of the Kunanposhpora mass rape are still fresh in the minds of the Kashmiri people. It said the impunity given by India to its troops under draconian laws is the main reason behind the Kunanposhpora-like tragedies.
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