Kashmiri women are being raped by Indian soldiers

A woman who is raped by Indian soldiers speaks to Alia Najki of the BBC

More than twenty-six years ago, more than 30 women were allegedly raped by Indian soldiers in Koonan and Poshpora villages of Kashmir. Survivor women are still fighting for justice.

BBC Urdu Department correspondent Alia Nazaki reports on how the incident happened in Kunan village of India-controlled Kashmir on 23 February 1991. The names of the people mentioned in this report have been changed to protect their privacy.

During those cold winter days, Zuni and Jarina were being prepared to go to sleep in the same village as other people. At the same time, they heard that the door was tightly knit.

Then there is a massive military operation of the Indian military to curb an armed insurgency against Indian control in Kashmir. There has been a regular incident in the area that surrounds the army-search, which is still going on.

Whatever happens during such a military operation - an area surrounds security forces. All the men in the house are brought out, and after that, they are searched. Men are made to stand in front of a spy Those who are believed to be suspected rebels or their supporters after they were taken away.

When Zuni and Zarina opened their doors and saw the soldiers, they thought it would be something like this today. At first, it was so that men should be taken out. But after what happened, the water came to their eyes even though they thought.

Zuni said, "Some of the soldiers were drinking and my two-year-old daughter was in my arms, in this situation a soldier tried to catch me."

On the night of the incident, the area surrounds the army.

"I stopped, in the scuffle, the girl fell from my hand, she was thrown out of the window, and she was paralyzed for life."

"After that, three soldiers caught me, torn off my clothes, I did not know what happened after that. They were five in number, I remember all of them."

Zarina was in that same house that day. He was married just 11 days earlier, on that day he returned home from his parents' house.

Zarina said, some soldiers asked her mother-in-law - this is the new clothes hanging in the house, who are they?

"Mother-in-law said, this is our new daughter-in-law, and I can not tell what happened to her, not only that we have not been tortured, we still do not get justice, even today I see the soldiers trembling."

Natasha Rathar wrote a book about the incident

The residents of Kunan and Poshapura complained that Indian soldiers have organized gang rape on girls of these two villages. Besides gang rape of women, men have been subjected to horrific torture. For the last 26 years, they have been fighting for justice.

The correspondent, Alia Nazaki, told about a complaint by Nayeem Akhtar, a minister of state government in Srinagar, that he said, "Truth in the conflict in Kashmir is very often blurred due to dust level."

Now it is seen that a group of Kashmiri women are determined to clean dust. They filed a petition in the State High Court in 2013. They have a Natasha of their names. , He wrote a book about this incident.

He said this is a big incident where rape victims came forward. There are many testimonies of this.

After that, the legal process began. After the long and difficult process, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court directed the state government to compensate the victims.

The state government initially agreed but later changed the position, the High Court challenged the verdict. The case is still going on.

Indian army forces have always denied the allegations. They send a statement asking for an interview. One of their spokespersons said that these allegations have been investigated three times independently, and the case has been 'closed' after getting contradictory details. Officials in Kashmir speak very loudly about this.

However, Naima Ahmed Mahajur, the head of the women's affairs commission, said that he believed that crime was committed in Kunan and Poshpora districts, and it must be proved in court.