‘India using rape of women as a weapon of war to suppress Kashmiris’ struggle’
Srinagar: All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have expressed deep regret that despite the passage of over three decades, victims of Kunan-Poshpura mass rape have not been provided justice.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Indian troops had gang-raped around 100 women of all ages from eight to eighty on the night of February 23 in 1991 during a siege and search operation in Kunan-Poshpora area of Kupwara district.
APHC leader Muhammad Yousaf Naqash in a statement in Srinagar said the Kunan-Poshpora incident serves as a vivid example of India’s unhesitant actions. He added that from the outset, India’s policymakers and implementers had employed every inhumane measure as a tool of war, aiming to convey to Kashmiris that India could disrespect their self-worth, honour and values through any form of aggression.
Hurriyat leaders Fayaz Hussain Jafari and Syed Sibte Shabbir Qummi in their separate statements in Srinagar said India is using the rape of women as a weapon of war to suppress the Kashmiris’ struggle for the right to self-determination and the tragic incident of Kanan-Pushpura is its clear example.
They said a long time has passed but none of the involved Indian troopers have been punished till date and many of the victimized women have left the world without justice. The Indian troops in the occupied territory have humiliated thousands of Kashmiri women, many Kashmiri women have been locked up in jails for years, thousands of Kashmiri women have become widows due to the massacre of innocent people but despite all this, India could not lower their morale, they added.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of Islamic Tanzeem-e-Azadi Jammu and Kashmir in a statement in Srinagar said that the Indian forces’ open threats to imprison and detain the people of occupied Kashmir, including the Hurriyat leadership cannot change the reality of Kashmir dispute.
He also expressed serious concern over the continued detention of the party Chairman Abdul Samad Inqilabi and reiterated the pledge to never accept India’s forced occupation of their motherland and to resist its military aggression at any cost.
