ISLAMABAD
All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APHC-AJK) chapter has expressed deep concern over the deteriorating situation of Kashmiri women and said that the role of women in the Kashmir freedom movement is immortal and unforgettable.
APHC-AJK Information Secretary Mushtaq Ahmed Butt in a statement, on the eve of International Women’s Day, said Kashmiri women are facing the worst Indian atrocities for their courageous and unparalleled role in the freedom struggle.
He paid great tribute to the Kashmiri women who made great sacrifices for the freedom movement and said Indian forces in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have used sexual violence against women as a weapon of war. He said the long list of serious human rights violations includes heartbreaking incidents like the Kannan Poshpora gang rape to the double murders and rapes in Shopian and Jammu.
He said that women in the occupied territory are not only facing sexual exploitation but also physical, psychological and emotional violence.
These women, he said, have become a unique and painful symbol of human tragedy and are forced to live a miserable life as half-widows.
He said since 1989, Indian forces have arrested thousands of Kashmiris and disappeared or martyred them in fake encounters, as a result of which thousands of women are still unaware of their husbands, whether they are alive or martyred.
He said that Indian forces used pellet guns indiscriminately to terrorize Kashmiri women and girls, as a result of which hundreds of innocent girls and women, including Hiba Nisar and Insha Mushtaq, have lost their eyesight.
Mushtaq Ahmad Butt said these incidents are proof that there is no value left for human dignity and fundamental rights in the occupied territory. He also expressed concern that Kashmiri women leaders have been detained in jails simply for demanding their birthright to self-determination.
He said dozens of Kashmiri women, including Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmida Sufi and Nahida Nasreen, are still languishing in Tihar jail and various jails in occupied Kashmir, where they are deprived of basic medical facilities despite suffering from various ailments.
The Hurriyat leader appealed to the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the international community and international human rights organizations to take immediate notice of the ongoing violence against women in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and put pressure on India to release the Kashmiri women detained in jails.
He said the silence of the international community is against the universal principles of human rights and the demands of justice. He said the suffering of Kashmiri women can be redressed only when they are given the right to decide their own future in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations.
