- Mushaal says high time to hold India accountable for crimes against Kashmiri women
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Chairperson of Peace and Culture Organisation Mushaal Hussein Mullick lamented that Indian troops have been committing shocking crimes against Kashmiri women of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) for the last three decades but ironically the world powers observed criminal silence in this regard.
Mushaal, who is the wife of the detained JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik, in a statement on International Women’s Day took up the plight of Kashmiri women and said that the most vulnerable and disgraced women, today, are the Kashmiri women who are facing the worst trauma inflicted by the Indian troops in IIOJK. She added that rape is used as a weapon of war in the occupied valley.
She said that when International Women’s Day was being observed the world over, there seems no end to the agonies of Kashmiri women. However, she said that they stand with the women of the world fighting for equality, peace, and progress.
The chairperson stated that world must not forget the trauma Kashmiri widows and half-widows are enduring when the world is observing International Women’s Day.
Referring to Kunanposhpora, she said how women were raped by the troops but so far no one has been punished for the worst crime rather the Indian authorities protected the criminals.
Mushaal said that women across IIOJK continue to face victimization at the hands of Indian troops, as Indian troops have raped 11,250 women since Jan 1989 till date in IIOJK.
The chairperson went on to say that Indian state terrorism has rendered 22,942 women widowed in the last 32 years adding that India is using rape and molestation of women as a weapon of war in IIOJK.
“Kashmiri women are being mentally tortured through frequent raids and enforced disappearances of their loved ones, besides subjecting routinely Kashmiri women to sexual harassment,” she added.
The Hurriyat leader stated that a large number of widows, half-widows in IIOJK was the testimony to Indian troops’ savagery, as India is the world’s leading country as far as rape and other crimes against women are concerned.
She urged human rights organizations to expose the Indian army’s crimes against Kashmiri women so as to build pressure on the world powers to act against the fascist Narendra Modi-led government.
The Chairperson said that besides sexual violence, the Kashmiri women had been suffering psychological and physical horrors at the hands of brutal Indian troops.
She said that there are thousands of women who have no information about the whereabouts of their husbands subjected to enforced disappearance by Indian troops since 1989.
She demanded the release of detained Kashmiri women including Aasiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen and Fahmeda Sofi from India’s Tihar Jail and half a dozen others languishing in different jails for political reasons.
Mushaal maintained that the root cause of the sufferings of Kashmiri women is the Indian illegal occupation of the scenic valley.
The Hurriyat leader urged that global women rights organizations should not remain a mute spectators to the plight of women across India and in IIOJK, as it is high time the world should come to rescue Kashmiri women from brutal Indian troops.
“It is time to hold India accountable for its crimes against women in IIOJK and India,” she added.
Mushaal, asked the world to wake up from the deep slumber and raise its voice for the hapless Kashmiri women.