22,958 women widowed, 11,256 molested since Jan 1989
India using rape of women as weapon of war in IIOJK
Islamabad, March 08 (KMS): As world is observing the International Women’s Day, today, the miseries and victimization of the Kashmiri women at the hands of Indian forces’ personnel continue unabated in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of the women’s day, thousands of women are among 96,181 Kashmiris, who have been martyred by Indian troops since January 1989. As many as 682 women have been martyred since January 2001. The report pointed out that 22,958 women have been rendered widowed and 11,256 molested by the Indian troops. It said that India is using rape of Kashmiri women as a weapon of war. Kunanposhpora mass rape and Shopian double-rape-and murder of two young women Aasiya Jan and Neelofar as well as gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, Aasifa Bano, of Kathua are its glaring examples.
APHC leaders, Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja, Farida Bahenji and Chaudhry Shaheen Iqbal in their statements issued in Srinagar urged the United Nations and other relevant global institutions to intervene on urgent basis for mitigation of the sufferings of Kashmiri women.
Speakers at a seminar organized by APHC-AJK chapter in Islamabad, today, hailed the Kashmiri women for bravely facing the Indian brutalities. Anti-India demonstrations and other programs were held in Muzaffarabad and other areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir to express solidarity with the oppressed women of IIOJK. The events were organized by Pasban-e-Hurriyat and Tehreek Shabab-ul-Muslimeen.
Meanwhile, Legal Forum for Kashmir on the occasion of International Women’s Day, today, launched an online petition to seek justice for Kashmiri women victims of Indian state terrorism occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Speakers at a conference on Kashmir in Bradford, UK, said that human rights abuses cannot go unchallenged as India has launched a demographic terrorism in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. British lawmaker, Judith Cummins, in her address announced to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Jammu and Kashmir in defending their rights. The event was hosted by Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK’s North Zone.
In Geneva, United Nations human rights chief, during his address at the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, said that in recent months, he discussed the worrying human rights situation in Kashmir with India. Volker Turk’s comments have unnerved Narendra Modi-led Hindutva government in India, prompting the country’s Permanent Representative to the UN , Ambassador Indra Mani Pandey, to say that the reference to the human rights situation in Kashmir was “unwarranted ”. KMS