Geneva-based HR activists express concern over women plight in IIOJ&K

MUZAFFARABAD, Sep 14 :A seminar organized by an AJK based women organization at Geneva highlighted the plight of women in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) and called upon the international human rights organizations to halt Indian widespread maltreatment of the women in the territory as a war weapon to suppress the rightful movement of the people.
The head of the Muslim Women Union, an AJK-based organization, Naila Altaf Kiani told APP here on Saturday by Phone that the seminar organized by her organization in collaboration with some other HR organizations was attended by global human rights activists like Caroline Handschin Moussir, Barrister Margret Owen, Wendi Momen, Zarin Hansworth, Settla Harris, Hadia Sartaj and renowned Kashmir woman Mrs. Shamim Shal.

The seminar titled “Women in Conflicts “was addressed by noted human rights activists, academicians and international law experts hailing from different parts of the world including, She said.

She said that the speakers emphasized the suffering of Kashmiri women, stating that as a vulnerable segment of the society, they have borne the brunt of Indian state terrorism.
According to Ms. Kiani, speakers in the seminar while referring to different heart-wrenching mass-rape incidents that had taken place in the region said that the horrendous cases of sexual violence, like the one in Kunan-Poshpora, serve as grim reminder of the horrible situation of the Kashmiri women have been facing day in and day out.
Recalling the dreadful memories of the incident, the speakers said, “Around 300 personnel of India’s 4th Rajputana Rifles entered into the villages in the guise of a cordon and search operation, dragged men out from their houses for interrogation and then proceeded to rape the woman who were left behind”, she added.
The speakers lamented that the Indian government and the authorities at the helm of affairs in the occupied Kashmir shamelessly tried to cover-up the incident and closed the case in October 1991.
“Women in Kashmir have suffered terribly at the hands of Indian occupation forces, and they were subjected to worst kind of physical and mental torture”
Citing media reports, they said, Indian occupation forces have been using physical and sexual violence as a weapon of war against women in Kashmir, she quoted and said despite more than 32 years passing, the rape-victims of Kunan-Poshpora village are still awaiting justice.
She said the speakers felt quite ironic that Indian state, which gives a notion of being a progressive society, was using rape as a weapon of war against Kashmiris to suppress the ongoing resistance for the realization of the right to self-determination quoting hundreds of cases of rape and harassment against women but not a single army personnel had been held accountable for his heinous crimes.
She further quoted the speakers regrettably noting that despite the passage of several years’ justice remained elusive for the rape victims as the police utterly failed to take action against the powerful army and reinvestigate the case following the SHRC’s recommendations. The closure of the cases, they said, was the result of the heightened pressure from the Indian army who approached the HC and got the orders of compensation and investigation stayed.
She said the speakers criticized the Indian judiciary and judges for failing to deliver justice to Kashmiri rape victims. Stating that delaying justice was tantamount to denying justice, they pointed out that the Indian judiciary’s approach to appease rulers had hindered its ability to hear cases on merit and provide speedy justice to victims.
“They said that it was high time that the international community must pay heed to the situation in the region and hold the Indian government accountable for the crimes its forces were committing against the people of Kashmir”, she added.
She informed that the speakers were of the view that the precarious situation in the region was demanding the human rights activists to keep a constant vigil over the situation in the restive region where people are being killed, maimed and murdered day in and day out by the Indian trigger-happy forces.