Women Main Victim Of Indian State Terrorism In IIOJK: Report

ISLAMABAD, Mar 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Mar, 2022 ) :As the world is observing the International Women's Day on Tuesday (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.

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 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.

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, Shalteing 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, Maroofa 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.

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 o 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.