Speakers at a seminar organized by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APHC-AJK) chapter in Islamabad, today, expressed serious concern over the atrocities committed by Indian troops on women in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The seminar organized by the APHC-AJK at its office on the occasion of International Women’s Day, today, was presided over by the Convener, Mahmood Ahmed Saghar while former Deputy Speaker of AJK Legislative Assembly, Meher-un-Nisa, was special guest.
The speakers said the Kashmiri women are bravely facing the worst Indian brutalities. They deplored that the Indian forces’ personnel were using rape as a weapon of war to subdue the resolve of the Kashmiri women. They cited Kunanposhpora mass rape and rape and murder of two women in Shopian as examples.
The speakers said the Indian soldiers have martyred husbands of thousands of women in fake encounters in IIOJK, rendering them widows. They said there are thousands of women who have no information about their husbands who have been subjected to forced disappearance by Indian troops and police since 1989.
The speakers said Indian troops have blinded hundreds of Kashmiri women and girls with pellet guns. Many women including Hurriyat leaders and activists like Aasiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen and Fehmeeda Sofi remain lodged in different jails of IIOJK and India, they said.
The speakers paid rich tribute to the Kashmiri women who have rendered unparalleled sacrifices in the Kashmir freedom movement. They appealed to the UN, OIC and the international community to put pressure on India to give the Kashmiris their right to self-determination.
The speakers included Mahmood Ahmad Saghar, Meher-un-Nisa, Syed Yousuf Naseem, Sheikh Abdul Mateen, Benazir Khan, Raja Khadim Hussain, Sheikh Abdul Majid, Qazi Imran, Zahid Ashraf, Dawood Yousafzai and Imtiaz Wani.—INP
