Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day – Responsibilities of Pakistan

Today, Pakistan is observing Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day to highlight the 1991 Kunan and Poshpara mass rape and torture by the Indian forces in illegally annexed Kashmir.

Indian Occupied Kashmir is a valley paradise whose beauty is not found anywhere else in the world, while the inhabitants of this country are examples of courage and determination.

Every person in the occupied Kashmir including children are facing the atrocities and brutalities of Indian tyranny. The women of India are also not behind in this struggle.

The women of Kashmir not only gave their blood in the struggle of their self-determination but also suffered the brutal cruelties of abduction and rape which history can never forget.

The oppressed Kashmiris are exposing the cruel face of India’s oppression all over the world by reminding them of the collective rape of their mothers, sisters, and daughters on this day.

Let’s take an in-depth review of the Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day and the responsibilities of Pakistan.

Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day

On February 23, 1991, an incident happened in twin villages of Kunan and Poshspara located in Indian occupied Kashmir in which 23 to 100 women were ganged raped by the Indian troops.

It all happens when more than 300 personnel of Indian army launched a search operation. When the search operation was over, some of the villagers claimed that many women were allegedly raped by the troops that night.

After the visit of local magistrate, the First Information Report (FIR) was filed in the police station which stated that 23 women were allegedly raped. However, Human Rights Watch arrested that the numbers could be between 23 and 100.

The alleged Indian army denied the accusations and no actions were taken against them. But in 2013, a group of 50 women filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India to re-open the investigations. Two women namely, Ifrah Butt and Natasha Rather along with three others co-wrote a book named, “Do you Remember Kunan Poshpora?” In which they stated all the atrocities of the Indian army.

Since then 2014, Pakistan commemorated the mass rape and torture of the residents of Kunan and Poshpora.

Statistics of Indian atrocities

Indian occupied Kashmir has the worst humanitarian curfew and lockdown in history, which was launched on August 5 last year. And to the date, the occupied valley has been deprived of communications, transportation, telephone and TV facilities.

According to a report of the Kashmir Media Service, since 2016, more than 10,000 protestors have been shot at with pellet guns and tear-gassed.

Approximately 900 women have been gang-raped and molested and more than 3,000 structures, including business and residential, have been destroyed.

Responsibilities of Pakistan

The responsibilities of Pakistan have been increasing day by day, which is probably why today the incumbent government of Pakistan takes the name of Kashmir more than all the previous governments.

Today, it is the responsibility of the Federal Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, to take strong measures for providing rights to the oppressed Kashmiris that are facing Indian brutalities.

Pakistan will need to adopt a clear and politically defensible position on the Kashmiri freedom struggle. 

After exposing this grim reality, Pakistan needs to take advantage of the ongoing turmoil in India and devise an effective political strategy to use it for the oppressed Kashmiris.

Pakistan should bring all the Muslim countries at one platform through their political and diplomatic efforts for the Kashmir dispute, as the government did in the case of Turkey and Malaysia, and the same strategy could lead to Kashmir’s independence.