Today, April 22, marks the anniversary of a horrifying incident wherein Indian armed forces personnel forcibly entered a house on this day in 1997, in Wavoosa area of Srinagar and subjected three sisters to rape and another 12-year-old sister to molestation.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the sisters who were raped aged 14, 16, and 18. The daughters’ mother was brutally beaten by the troops when she tried to prevent the rape of her daughters.
These horrific acts of violence, mental torture, aggression, and ruthless brutality against women have turned their lives into a never-ending nightmare in the territory for the past 35 years. The women of IIOJK have been continuously subjected to terror and trauma through frequent abductions, sexual violence, illegal detentions, and molestation by Indian forces under the pretext of ‘cordon and search operations’.
Indian forces are resorting to inhuman and brutal acts to suppress the legitimate freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) provides immunity to Indian forces from prosecution for their crimes of sexual violence. The draconian nature of this act has been condemned by members of the international community as a violation of international human rights law.
The report further stated that India’s use of sexual violence in IIOJK has been extensively documented by two reports from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as well as by global media and human rights organizations.
The lack of accountability for perpetrators and the absence of justice for rape victims in the territory reflect India’s deliberate disregard for the rule of law and human rights.
The report called on the world to wake up from its slumber and take action to address the use of sexual violence as a war tactic in the occupied territory.
