Islamabad, March 08, 2022 (PPI-OT):As the world is observing the International Women’s Day, today, miseries and victimization of the Kashmiri women at the hands of Indian troops, police and agencies continue unabated in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
According to a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of the global women day, today, thousands of women are among 95,981 Kashmiris, martyred by Indian military, paramilitary and police personnel since January 1989 till date. At least, 681 women have been martyred by the troops since January 2001 till date.
The report pointed out that the unabated Indian state terrorism rendered 22,943 women widowed. The Indian forces’ personnel molested/ disgraced 11,250 women including the victims of Kununposhpora mass rape and Shopian double-rape-and murder of 17-year-old Aasiya Jan and her sister-in-law Neelofar Jan. An eight-year-old girl, Aasifa Bano, of Kathua, was abducted, gang-raped and subsequently murdered by Indian police personnel, in January 2018.
Indian troops on February 10, 2021 abused a minor girl and dragged her into their vehicle when she along with her sister was working in her garden at Chewa-Ajas in Bandipore district. On raising hue and cry by her sister, the locals rushed to the spot and rescued the minor victim. The victim’s family lodged an FIR in Ajas Police station and the troops harassed and pressured the family to withdraw the case.
The report said that thousands of women lost their sons, husbands, fathers and brothers in the occupied territory who were subjected to custodial disappearance by India troops. As per the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, more than 8,000 Kashmiris went missing in custody during the past 34 years, the report added.
The report revealed that thousands of school boys and girls were also injured by the pellets fired by Indian troops and police personnel while over hundred including 19-month-old Heeba Jan, 2-year-old Nusrat Jan, Ulfat Hameed (17), Insha Mushtaq, Ifrah Shakoor (17), Shakeela Bano, Tammana (11), Shabroza Mir (16), Shakeela Begum(35) and Rafia Bano (31)were blinded.
Four-year-old Zuhra Majeed was hit by pellets in her legs and abdomen after her family was targeted by Indian police outside their home in Qamarwari in Srinagar on July 10, 2016.
A 17-year-old Ulfat Hameed, a Class 10 student from Baramulla said “I used to teach sewing and tailoring to girls in my village, but not anymore. Because of the injuries, I could not write my class 10 board exam”.
One police constable and Special Police Officer (SPO) in July, 2021 gang raped a minor Dalit girl in Dansal area of Jammu.
The report maintained that morality dies out when it comes to morally down Indian armed forces. It said there is a culture of sexual harassment of women officers in Indian armed forces and even lady officers are not safe from sexual harassment by morally corrupt seniors.
The report said that the world community must wake up to contain sexual violence being perpetrated by Indian Army in IIOJK.
The report said that over a dozen women including Hurriyat leaders, 59-year-old Syeda Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen, Insha Tariq Shah (23), Saima Akther, Shazia Akhter,Afrooza ,Aisha Mustaq, Hina Bashir Beig, Aasiya Bano and Alass Aara were facing illegal detention inside Kashmir jails and in infamous Tihar Jail in India. They are being victimized only for representing the Kashmiri people’s righteous demand and aspirations.
The report further pointed out that womenfolk are among the majority of the Kashmiris suffering from multiple psychic problems.
The women who lost men in the form of enforced disappearance are referred to as “half-widows,” because of their uncertain status between wifehood and widowhood.
Many mothers are waiting for their disappeared sons while widows and half-widows are in pain since decades in occupied territory.
From AJK, around 400 women who married Kashmiri youth are facing injustice as the Indian government is neither giving them citizenship rights, nor travel documents to go back to Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Their children are not getting admissions in government schools.
“I came here in 2012. My mother died recently but I could not go to see her one last time. We can’t meet our relatives and family members. Parents of many women died during these years but they could not attend the funeral,” said Saba Fayaz who belongs to AJK and married a Kashmiri youth from IIOJK.
Kashmiri women are carrying the heaviest burden in this conflict as they face Indian barbarity and carry the cost of the military occupation.
Women in Kashmir don’t enjoy the basic rights which are given under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and even promised under CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly described as an international bill of rights for women.
The report said Kashmiri women stand like a rock today facing the worst sort of political and social pressures like Rafiqa Begum, the wife of illegally detained Hurriyat leader Aiyaz Akbar who died due to cancer in Maloora, Sheltering in Srinagar last year 2021. Ayaz Akbar is facing illegal detention in Indian’s Tihar Jail since July 2017 on false charges by the dreaded Indian agency, NIA.
Another victim, Maroof Meraj, wife of illegally detained Hurriyat leader Raja Meraj-ud- Din Kalwal having four daughters said, “I am suffering from depression and so are my daughters who have not seen their father since long.” Her mother-in-law and mother of the jailed Hurriyat leader, Raja Meraj-ud- Din Kalwal also died due to depression last year.
“Our life has turned into hell. In his absence, things have become too difficult. Our relatives do help us. But it can’t go a long way. We have no one to look after us”. She said that her husband has been kept in jail just for his political views.
Another victim woman, Rafia Begum whose son Athar Mushtaq Wani was martyred by Indian troops in a fake encounter in Srinagar in December 2020.The mother lost everything and often breaks into tears demanding justice and return of the body of his son who was buried along with two more youth by Indian troops in an unknown graveyard in Ganderbal. Hundreds of such mothers are facing atrocities, injustice and depression whose sons are buried by Indian troops in unknown graveyards in Baramulla, Kupwara and Ganderbal districts.
Meanwhile, APHC spokesman, APHC leaders and organizations have said that the women across the world are observing International Women Day but the oppressed women of Kashmir have nothing to commemorate and urged instruments of international justice, watchdogs like UN and international community to intervene and monitor the sufferings of Kashmiri Women.
They said that women are taking a leading role in the ongoing freedom struggle and called upon the international community to impress upon India to protect women rights in the territory. They said that harassment and other forms of oppression against women continue in IIOJK.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org