Pakistan draws world’s attention to plight of Kashmiri women in IoK

ISLAMABAD: On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pakistan has drawn the world’s attention to the plight of Kashmiri women in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&K), who have been frequent targets of sexual violence by Indian occupation forces.

In a statement issued today (Friday) by the Foreign Office, FO Spokesperson said that in the past three decades, more than 11,000 Kashmiri women have been victims of rape or gang-rape at the hands of Indian occupation forces in IoK. “We reaffirm our complete solidarity with these Kashmiri women and their families,” the statement read.

“Women in IOJ&K have frequently been targets of violence and aggression as a means to punishing their families and communities for standing up against illegal and forcible Indian occupation,” the statement added.

FO Spokesperson further said, “Abduction and molestation of young women during so-called cordon-and-search operations has been used as a punitive tool by Indian occupation forces to punish entire communities.”

The statement also said, “These repugnant acts of violence against women are enabled through a pervasive culture of impunity, reinforced by draconian laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) that shield the Indian security forces from prosecution from their crimes of sexual violence.”

“The horrific mass rape of Kashmiri women in Kunan Poshpura villages of IOJ&K on 23 February 1991 is one of many evidence of systematic use of rape by Indian occupation forces to terrorize the entire population,” it added.

Pakistan condemns India’s use of rape as an instrument of state policy to subjugate the Kashmiri people in the occupied territory. “The UN Security Council, OHCHR, the UN human rights mechanisms, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict must take cognizance of these crimes and hold Indian state actors to account who abet and partake in acts of sexual violence against women in IOJ&K,” the statement concluded.