ISLAMABAD: The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is being observed worldwide today.
However, in Indian illegally-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, women continue to face a haunting reality of state-sponsored terrorism, injustice, and agonizing atrocities inflicted by the Indian government.
A report by Kashmir Media Service highlighted India’s use of draconian laws to violate the sanctity and dignity of Kashmiri women. Since August 5, 2019, actions by the Modi-led government have provided legal impunity to Indian armed forces, enabling them to openly target, detain, and disrespect Kashmiri women while disregarding their fundamental rights.
The report grimly outlines the staggering toll: 2,352 women martyred, 11,259 molested, and countless subjected to disgrace by Indian troops since 1989. The brutality of Indian state terrorism has left 22,967 Kashmiri women widowed over the past 34 years. Shockingly, prominent women like Aasiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen, and Fehmeeda Sofi have languished in illegal detention within notorious Indian prisons for over five years.
Despicably, India employs the molestation of women as a weapon of war in IIOJK, mentally tormenting Kashmiri women through the killings, arrests, and enforced disappearances of their loved ones. The report highlights the routine sexual harassment of Kashmiri women by Indian troops, an act designed to humiliate the entire Kashmiri populace.
It urgently calls upon global human rights bodies to intervene and restrain India from perpetrating these heinous crimes and gross violations against Kashmiri women. Meanwhile, leaders from the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, including Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja, and Farida Bahenji, plead with the international community to use its influence to halt the ongoing Indian state terrorism and atrocities against women in IIOJK.
