'Women in IIOJK immensely suffer at hands of Indian forces'

They're molested and objectified to collectively punish for their defiance to illegal Indian rule, says AJK president

MUZAFFARABAD:

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that as the world is celebrating international women's day, thousands of women in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) are "immensely suffering at the hands of occupation troops of an aggressor country".

“Thousands of women in Kashmir suffer immensely due to the illegal occupation of their motherland. Sisters have died while saving their siblings, young wives have suffered defending their husbands and mothers have taken their last breath longing for their missing sons,” the president said while addressing a 70-member delegation of Air War College of Pakistan Air Force on Monday.

The delegation called on Masood Khan under the leadership of Air Commodore Kashif Jamal Khan included officers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Niger and Egypt.

March 08; Muzaffarabad: Addressing members of PAF Air War College delegation followed by a question and answer session. pic.twitter.com/C5vGa18m9T

— Masood Khan (@Masood__Khan) March 8, 2021

 

He said that Kashmiri women, children, youth and the old aged people are burning in the flames of a war, which they had not chosen but was imposed upon them. “Women in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir are among the worst sufferers of Indian state terrorism. They are molested and objectified to collectively punish for their defiance to illegal Indian rule." 

Masood called upon the world forums and global human rights organisations to help secure the basic rights to IIOJK women guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and promised under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

He said that sexual violation against women is being used as a weapon of war in Occupied Kashmir just to compel the whole Kashmiri nation to give up their demand for freedom and the right to self-determination.

March 08; Muzaffarabad: A group photo with the the visiting delegation of PAF Air War College. pic.twitter.com/Lf3lwSQjMS

— Masood Khan (@Masood__Khan) March 8, 2021

 

He lamented that the modesty of Kashmiri women and girls is being outraged by the Indian troops in the presence of their parents, sisters, brothers and even their children. "Their husbands are being killed or subjected to enforced disappearance to compel the women to live the life of a widowed.

“The international community should put pressure on India that the psychological trauma faced by 'half widows' [whose husbands have disappeared] should come to an end and it should provide access to information regarding the disappeared persons,” he demanded.

Apprising the delegation of the overall situation of IIOJK, the AJK president said that war in one form or the other had been continuing in disputed territory for the past 70 years, but after August 2019, the territory has been virtually turned into a big prison where the whole population is under the siege of one million Indian troops.

He maintained that the youth are being killed in fake encounters while 13,000 youth have been detained in prisons and concentration camps in the occupied territory and authorities tell nothing about their fate.

The state president also said that under a preplanned strategy, India is importing and settling hundreds of thousands of Indian Hindus in the disputed territory in order to turn Muslim majority state of Kashmir into a Hindu majority one.

Responding to various questions asked by the members of the delegation, Masood said that the actions of August 2019 have exposed India's false narrative on Kashmir as the international community, members of the UK and the European parliaments, as well as the US Congress, have publicly condemned India for its haegemonic designs.

While apprising the delegation about the history of liberation of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the state president said liberated territory with its own constitution, president, prime minister and the legislative assembly as well as the independent judiciary is quite distinct from that of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

"The people in Azad Kashmir enjoy all basic rights civil liberties and are independently struggling to improve their economic future," he added.