ISLAMABAD: It has been a year of suffering, trauma, fear, uncertainty and wrath of occupation forces since they laid the siege of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). It has been the hardest year for the Kashmiris since Indian occupation in general and for the women in particular. Usually the Kashmiri men are targeted, but the women are also suffering from the Indian military siege in their own less visible yet painful way.
On August 5, 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government stripped the IIOJK of its special constitutional status by abrogating Articles 370 and 35-A that gave the occupied state a degree of autonomy within the Indian state. Now now it is under the direct rule of the central government with a nominal state legislature.
This blatant move helped Modi place the Muslim-majority region under a massive security siege, which has now completed a year and ever since life of an ordinary Kashmiri has been a struggle.
Amid all the chaos and unjust moves by the Indian government that turned the valley into a war-trodden region, the resilient Kashmiri women are now the biggest victim of Indian military siege.
According to the latest statistics by Kashmir Media Services, the Indian troops molested and gang-raped 32 Kashmiri women during the period from January to June 2020 alone. The rape has been the oldest war weapon, which is being used against the unfortunate Kashmiri women in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir when they are locked down in their own homes.
A very well-known face of Kashmir’s freedom struggle, Mushaal Hussein Mullick, who is also the wife of Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik and Chairperson of Peace and Culture Organization, told APP that the Kashmiri women were being persecuted to a different level of tyranny.
“Rape is being used as a weapon of war and India is systematically using this to suppress the freedom struggle of Kashmiri people. Children are being tortured and pelleted. It’s an ideal opportunity for the world to focus on the victims and expose the fascist face of India,” she added.–Agencies
