On 19 June 2015, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed 19 June of each year the International Day for Elimination of Sexual Violence In Conflict, in order to raise awareness of the need to put an end to conflict-related sexual violence, to honor the victims and survivors of sexual violence around the world and to pay tribute to all those who have courageously devoted their lives and lost their lives in standing up for the eradication of these crimes.
The date was chosen to commemorate the adoption on 19 June 2008 of Security Council resolution 1820 (2008), in which the Council condemned sexual violence as a tactic of war and an impediment of peacebuilding. In response to the rise in violent extremism, the Security Council adopted resolution S/RES/2331 (2016), the first to address the nexus between trafficking, sexual violence, terrorism, and transnational organized crime.
Such tactics have also been used in IIOJ&K as a weapon of war. The population of IIOJ&K especially the women are faced with an unending ordeal of terror and trauma due to frequent abductions, sexual violence, illegal detentions and molestations at the hands of Indian security forces on pretext of Cordon and Search Operations.
Rape, the most demented form of oppression is being used as a state-sponsored tool by Indian forces in IIOJ&K. On this Women’s Day, Kashmir Media Service (2023) reported that, “In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders have deplored that India is using the rape of Kashmiri women as a weapon of war to humiliate the Kashmiris and suppress their ongoing struggle to secure freedom from its subjugation.
Senior APHC leader, Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, in a statement issued in Srinagar said the International Women’s Day being commemorated, today, all over the world, is meaningless for the Kashmiri women. He said the women in IIOJK continue to be killed, tortured, arrested and raped in broad day light by trigger happy Indian troops.
He paid glowing tributes to the valiant Kashmiri women for their supreme sacrifices in the ongoing freedom movement. He said although every Kashmiri is victim of Indian state terrorism, but the women are the worst sufferers of the Indian savagery. He maintained that the Kunanposhpora tragedy in which around a hundred women were gang-raped by Indian troops in a single night and Shopian dual rape and murder case are glaring examples of Indian brutality in the occupied territory. He urged the champions of women rights to take cognizance of the plight of women of IIOJK.”
On 9th March 2022, a webinar titled, “Violence Against Women: A Case Study of Indian Administered Kashmir” was jointly organized in connection with the International Women’s Day by Kashmir Institute of International Relations and International Muslim Women Union (IMWU) on the sidelines of the ongoing 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. Highlighting the plight of Kashmiri women, the speakers said, “The continued conflict has left behind a harrowing legacy in the person of rape-victims, widows and half-widows.” Referring to a report they said, “The incessant bloodshed and violence in the restive region have shattered the lives of women so much so that today 36% of women aged between 15 to 70 suffer anxiety disorder.”
Indian forces sexually assaulted more than 11,245 women in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) during the past three decades as they use harassment and molestation as a weapon of war in the territory. A report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said Indian forces’ aggression in the occupied territory has left 22,923 women widowed since January 1989 till date.
It revealed that nearly 100 women were raped by brutal Indian troops in IIOJK’s Kunan and Poshpora villages on February 23, 1991. Rape is sanctioned as a matter of official policy in the occupied territory, it added. The report said, India is deliberately targeting Kashmiri women to humiliate and demoralize the Kashmiris and is using rape as a war tactic to create fear among in the territory.
It said, Kashmiris will never forget the horrific incidents of mass rape in Kunan-Poshpora and other villages in IIOJK. Rights’ bodies around the globe have documented many cases of rape and gang rape by Indian forces in the territory and despite evidence, not a single Indian soldier has been punished for committing rape. The report maintained that rapist Indian forces were an ugly blot on humanity and the world community must wake up to stop sexual violence being used as war tactics in IIOJK.
The world must pay attention to these war crimes and voices must be raised against them. International human rights organizations are enjoying their deep slumber while India has been brutalizing the women in IIOJK. International community and media services must highlight the plight of Kashmiri women and should do something productive against this barbarism.
