In Indian illegally occupied Kashmir (IIOJK), Indian troops and police personnel subjected thousands of Kashmiri youth to enforced disappearance during custody over several decades. Indian occupied Kashmir being most militarized zone in the world has witnessed endless killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and other brutalities by the Indian forces over the last three decades. Families of the disappeared suffer economically because in most cases the breadwinner of the family is the victim. The disappearances not only silence opponents but also create uncertainty and fear in the wider community. Inhumane, savage and insensate acts of violence and forced disappearances have been committed by all tributaries of the Indian security apparatus. Furthermore, the practice of enforced disappearances has given rise to a new class of people called half-widows and half orphans, now common phrases used in Kashmir. The impunity provided to the troops through draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Disturbed Areas Act and Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act gave security forces, the license to kill, terrorize, arrest and harass the people without being questioned. Enforced disappearances in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have led to torture, custodial killings, rape and sexual molestations, arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings and traumatizing victim’s families. From the investigations held so far, these victims are first disappeared by occupation forces and then tortured to death or summarily executed. Thousands of Kashmiri women continued to wait for the return of their sons subjected to enforced disappearance in custody by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir. The continued Indian state terrorism had resulted in the killing of 96,025 Kashmiris including women and children from 1989 to 8th May 2022.
As many as 22,944 women have been widowed by the Indian forces and 11,255 raped, disgraced or molested during the period. Relatives including mothers, wives and daughters of illegally detained Hurriyat leaders, activists and youth have expressed serious concern over the health of their relatives languishing in different jails of India and IIOJK. Nearly two dozen women, including 62-year-old resistance leader, Aasiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen Fehmeeda Sofi, Shazia Akhter and Insha Tariq were illegally facing detention in different jails, including India’s infamous Tihar jail, on false charges. The troops had subjected about 8,000 Kashmiris to custodial disappearance during the period and the mothers of the majority of these disappeared people had been waiting for their return. The Kashmiri mothers are bearing the brunt of Indian state terrorism as the Kashmiri women, including mothers, had taken the ultimate hit by losing their near and dear ones to Indian bullets. Thousands of Kashmiri mothers continue to wait for return of their sons imprisoned or subjected to enforced disappearances in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Several Kashmiri mothers have, so far, died in their quest to find their sons disappeared in Indian troops’ custody. The Kashmir mothers are even not allowed to mourn the deaths of their sons martyred by Indian troops and to bury them at places of their choice. Pakistan has been calling upon the world on almost every international forum for providing reparation and compensation to the victims of enforced disappearances and their family members in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan is of the stance that thousands of unmarked and unknown graves of victims of enforced disappearances have surfaced in the held valley for the last few years.
