GENEVA: Women have been the worst victims of the long-drawn conflict in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), and the world must raise its voice for the safety of women in IIOJK, speakers said on Friday.
They expressed these remarks during a seminar on “Women in Conflict: Challenges and Responsibilities” held in Geneva on the sidelines 53rd session of the UNHRC. Speaking on the occasion, the participants while discussing the shocking impacts of the Kashmir conflict on women, said that Kashmiri women have lost their kin and kith during the current conflict.
World Must Raise Voice to Protect Women in IIOJK
The speakers regrettably noted that sexual violence against women being leveraged as a weapon of war by the Indian troops in the region has been totally ignored at the global level. They added that the prolonged Indian illegal military occupation of Kashmir and the presence of over half a million forces in the region has created a fertile ground for violence against women.
Citing to the nightmarish ordeal of the Kashmiri women have been going through; the participants said, “The mass-rape of scores of women in Kunan Poshpora village in Handwara in 1991 by the Indian occupation troops and rape and murders case of Shopian serve as the utmost shocking example of the Indian state terrorism”.
They noted that Kashmiri women continue to suffer the worst costs of violence and abuse of power by the Indian forces despite growing calls for the empowerment of women in conflict regions. They further said that it was high time that the international human rights organization should take effective cognizance of the issue and take solid steps to help stop violence against women in Kashmir.
