*NEW DEHLI: **Leaders of Indian women organisation who visited OccupiedKashmir reveal horrifying tales of Indian military brutalities in valley.*
*Leaders of Indian women’s organisations released a fact-finding report,detailing appalling conditions in the Muslim-majority valley.*
The five women leaders including Dr Syeda Hameed of the Muslim Women’sForum, Pragatisheel Mahila Samiti’s Poonam Kaushik, and Annie Raja,Kawaljeet Kaur, and Pankhuri Zaheer from the National Federation of IndianWomen’s (NFIW) visited occupied Kashmir from September 17-21, 2019.
Speaking at the Delhi Press Club, the five brave women shared theirexperiences and observations with the media and concerned citizens aftervisiting Kashmir under lockdown for the past 51 days, Kashmir Media Servicereported.
“When we reached there, it was like walking into a cloud of depression,” DrSyeda Hameed and Annie Raja explained, terming their findings an eyewitnessaccount.
“By many verified accounts, we are talking about almost 13,000 young peoplehaving disappeared in the past 51 days,” they said, noting that theyvisited Srinagar and several villages in the districts of Shopian, Pulwama,and Bandipora.
The report details the grief of one of the many people the women spoke toand notes that the Indian Army “pounces on young boys; it seems they hatetheir very sight. When fathers go to rescue their children they are made todeposit money, anywhere between 20,000 to 60,000.”
“So palpable is their hatred for Kashmiri youth that when there is thedreaded knock on the door of a home, an old man is sent to open it. ‘Wehope and pray they will spare a buzurg [elderly]. But their slaps land onall faces,” it said, quoting a local.
It speaks of mothers waiting for their teenage sons, their last memoryembedded in their hearts, “they dare not give up hope but they know it willbe a long wait before they see their tortured bodies or their corpses… ifthey do”.
Lights, the report mentions, “had to be turned off around 8pm, afterMaghrib prayers” and a violation of that curfew attracts Indian “army menangered by this breach” who take away any men in the house, regardless oftheir age.
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Another local told the women that “barking dogs mean an imminent visit byarmy”. The man said: “I can’t switch on the phone for light so I can takemy little girl to the toilet.”
The women explained in their report that there was no public transportationand due to a lack of ambulances, there were several cases of overduedeliveries or women delivering babies prematurely due to the stress andfear.
“It feels like the government is strangling us and then sadistically askingus to speak at the same time,” a local girl told the women, who wrote:“Young women complained they were harassed by army, including removal oftheir niqab.”
The women leaders, who noted the Kashmiri folks’ “amazing amount ofresilience” reiterated that nothing about the situation is normal.
“All those claiming that the situation is slowly returning to normalcy aremaking false claims based on distorted facts,” they wrote.
Among their demands, the women have asked for the withdrawal of Indian Armyand paramilitary forces, cancellation of all cases and first informationreports, release of those detained, an inquiry to be conducted over thewidespread violence, and compensation to families whose loved ones lostlives because of non-availability of transportation and absence ofcommunication.
They further demanded that all communication lines — including internet andmobile networks — in Kashmir must immediately be restored, Articles 370 and35A be implemented again, future decisions for Kashmir be taken by dialoguewith the Kashmiris, army personnel be removed, and a time-bound inquirycommittee be constituted to look into the excesses committed by the Indianarmy.
