#KunanPoshporaMassRape
February 25, 2025 Islamabad: The miseries and victimization of Kashmiri women by the Indian forces’ personnel continue unabated in occupied Jammu and Kashmir since decades. This was revealed by a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of the Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day, 23 Feb.
The report said the miseries and victimization of Kashmiri women by the Indian forces including Indian army, Rashtriya Rifles, Border Security Forces, Central Reserve Police Force, Special Operation Group, Village Defiance Committee and police personnel continue unabated in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian troops had gang-raped around 100 women of all ages from eight to eighty years old on the night of February 23 in 1991 during a siege and search operation in Kunan and Poshpora villages of Kupwara district.
The report deplored that despite the passing of thirty-four years, justice continues to elude the victims while the forces personnel involved in heinous crime are roaming free. It said that the memories of Kunanposhpora mass rape are still fresh in the minds of the Kashmiri people. It said, the impunity given by India to its troops under draconian laws is the main reason behind the Kunanposhpora-like tragedies.
“Kunanposhpora (Kunan and Poshpora) mass rape is a glaring example of Indian troops’ brutalities in IIOJK. It is a blot on the so-called democratic face of India, which is using rape of women as an instrument of state terrorism in IIOJK. Kunan and Poshpora tragedy is a proof of institutionalized violence being using by India and the war crimes perpetrated by Indian troops in Kashmir,” it said.
The report maintained that India is employing rape as a military tactic to humiliate the Kashmiris and break their resolve for freedom from its subjugation. It said that New Delhi must be pressurized to reopen Kunanposhpora mass rape case to bring perpetrators to book. India must be held accountable for the heinous crimes perpetrated by its troops against the Kashmiris, it added.
The report maintained that at least 688 women have been martyred by Indian forces personnel since January 2001 till date 2025 February.
It pointed out that since January 1989, the unabated Indian state terrorism and gross human rights violations rendered 22,981 women widowed while Indian forces’ personnel molested 11,265 women in the occupied territory.
The Day is observed on both sides of the Line of Control every year to pay tribute to the struggles and sacrifices of the survivors of mass rape and torture in Kunan and Poshpora villages of Kupwara district.
Call for the observance of the day as Women’s Resistance Day was, first, given by Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and supported by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference in 2014.
The report pointed out that over three dozen women and girls including Hurriyat leaders, Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen, Ishrat ,Nigeena, Sarda Begum, Munira Begum, Mudifa, Rashida, Suraya Rashid Wani, Zaytun Akhtar, Shams Begam, Anjum Younis,Tabasum Maqbool, Anjum Younis, Saima Akther, Rubeena, Haseena, Zareena Akhter, Tahira Kouser, Suraya Rashid ,Aafreena alias Aayat, Shabroza Bano, Masoom Ali ,Gulshan Naaz , Nusrat Jan , Maryama Begum are facing illegal detention in different jails of IIOJK and India. They are being political victimized only for the reason that they represent the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their demand for the right to self-determination, it said.