Feature 
 

Subjugation

Suffering in Silence

Kashmiri women continue to raise their voices against the injustice they endure. Will the champions of world justice listen to their appeals?

By Muhammad Omar Iftikhar | May 2024


In India-occupied Kashmir, justice remains elusive for Kashmiri women who have endured prolonged suffering due to sexual violence inflicted by the Indian Army. Kashmir Media Service reports a staggering 11,224 cases of sexual assault from 1989 to 2020, with a disturbing 882 Kashmiri women subjected to gang rape in 1992 alone.

A 1994 Human Rights Watch report exposes the systematic use of mass rape by the Indian military as a weapon of intimidation and punishment. Asia Watch further underscores the prevalence of extrajudicial killings, looting, massacres, and rapes employed as reprisals against mujahideen, with 44 extrajudicial killings and 15 rapes reported in just one week. Despite the gravity of these offenses, the absence of an effective system of punishment has allowed the Indian Army’s violent actions to persist with impunity for years. The leniency exhibited by the Indian government has empowered forces to commit sexual assault crimes without fear of consequences.

Even after 75 years, justice remains elusive. According to a report by the Research Society of International Law, Indian forces spared no women ranging from ages 11 to 60. Human Rights Watch notes that only a few perpetrators have faced conviction, underscoring a failure to address the pervasive issue at its core.

The India-occupied Kashmir has been marred by such conflict, with a history of clashes between Indian security forces and freedom fighters seeking accession to Pakistan. Amid the turmoil, instances of sexual violence perpetrated by the Indian army, police, and paramilitary forces against Kashmiri women have increased, often serving as a means of punishment and humiliation for alleged militant sympathizers.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) granted immunity to military personnel unless the central government sanctions an investigation. The infamous Kunan-Poshpora case serves as an evident example of the protection enjoyed by Indian security forces. Despite allegations of gang rape in 1991, the army consistently denied involvement, showcasing the systematic impunity offered to security forces by the Indian government.


As per a report released by Kashmir Media Service in November 2023, India has utilized draconian laws to establish its own legal framework, targeting the sacredness and pride of Kashmiri women. Especially following the illegal actions of the Narendra Modi-led government post-August 5, 2019, the Indian army, paramilitary, and police personnel now possess legal cover to pursue their wicked agenda openly. This includes targeting, detaining, and making offensive remarks about Kashmiri women, overlooking their social, political, economic, human, and other rights.

The report reveals disturbing statistics, stating that since 1989, some 2,352 women have been martyred, and 11,259 have faced molestation and disgrace at the hands of Indian troops in the occupied territory. Indian state terrorism has left 22,967 Kashmiri women widowed in the past 34 years. Additionally, more than two dozen women, including Aasiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen, and Fehmeeda Sofi, have faced illegal detention in infamous prisons such as Tihar Jail and others for over five years.

The report stresses India’s use of rape as a weapon of war in IIOJK to disgrace the Kashmiris, citing incidents like the Kunan-Poshpora mass rape, Shopian double rape and murder, and Kathua rape and murder as glaring examples. The report recounts the brutalities, including the gang rape of around a hundred women during a cordon and search operation in Kunan-Poshpora in 1991, the abduction, gang rape, and killing of Aasiya and Neelofar in Shopian in 2009, and the repeated gang rape of 8-year-old Aasifa Bano in Kathua in 2018.

Furthermore, the report highlights the mental torture inflicted upon Kashmiri women through the killing, arresting, and enforced disappearances of their loved ones. It calls on world human rights bodies to intervene and restrict India from committing heinous crimes and gross human rights violations against Kashmiri women.

Meanwhile, leaders from the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, including Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja, and Farida Bahenji, have issued separate statements appealing to the international community to intervene and leverage its influence to halt the ongoing India’s state terrorism, injustice, and atrocities against women in IIOJK.

Read More