ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Human Rights and Empowerment of Women Mushaal Hussein Mullick has called on the global community and human rights organizations to take note of the growing trend of custodial rape and the use of rape as a weapon of war by Indian troops in India illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Mushaal, who is also the wife of illegally detained Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik, said in a statement that brutal Indian forces have used sexual abuse of women in the IIOJK as a weapon of war for more than seven decades, but the international community and world powers have maintained criminal silence.
She pointed out that the dirty and ugly face of India was revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which revealed that India recorded 275 cases of custodial rape between 2017 and 2022, adding that these incidents, documented in various states, involved perpetrators from among law enforcement agencies, armed forces and other detention facilities, which reflects abuse of power under the guise of state protection.
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SAPM recalled that incidents such as the Kunan Poshpora gang-rape in 1991, the Shopian double murder-rape and the gang-rape of young Asifa Bano are among the most appalling examples of the nightmares faced by women in Kashmir. She said that the NCRB proved that even Indian women were not saved from these mentally ill Indian forces, which indicated that they were not human beings but beasts who did not even know anything about humanity and women’s rights.
Mushaal emphasized that the gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that since 1989, more than 11,000 cases of sexual violence have been reported in IIOJK, leaving nearly 23,000 women widowed and more than 107,805 children orphaned. She said Indian fascist forces can cross all limits of brutality and inhuman acts but they cannot dampen the courage of Kashmiri freedom fighters.
