Waiting For Indian Justice on Kunan Poshpora Mass Rapes

YFK Condemns The Mass Gang Rape of 53 Helpless Kashmiri Women By Indian Soldiers In The Village of Kunan Poshpora, Kupwara District

Islamabad, 24 February: Youth Forum for Kashmir, or YFK, Pakistan’s first pro-Kashmir lobbying group run by Kashmiri and Pakistani youth, calls on India to punish the soldiers from the elite Indian Army unit involved in the mass gang rape of 53 Kashmiri women in the village of Kunan Poshpora, in the remote Kupwara District, on the night of 23 and 24 February, 1991.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, some accounts suggest that up to a hundred women were raped that night. An independent and transparent probe can confirm the exact figure.

But twenty-three years later, the victims continue to wait for Indian justice in the face the refusal of Indian military leadership to punish the culprits. Over the years, the government of India tried unsuccessfully to raise doubts about the incident in order to make it controversial.

“We strongly condemn the delayed Indian justice on Kunan Poshpora incident,” says Ahmed Quraishi, the Executive Director of Youth Forum For Kashmir [YFK], in a statement released in Islamabad. “The rape epidemic that has gripped India recently finds its genesis in Kashmir, where possibly hundreds of Indian soldiers and their units have been involved in using rape as a tool of war and occupation. This culture of impunity on rape, and the idea that you can get away with rape, found its way into India with the return of thousands of soldiers back to their homes. Kashmir is India’s single largest concentration of military troops. Up to half a million Indian soldiers, police and paramilitary personnel are posted in Kashmir at different times.”

“This mass rape is the most cowardly, heinous and inhuman attempt that shows the merciless mentality of Indian army. It is in no way a reflection of humanity and international laws, which advise anyone in the world to make any helpless women’s life hell,” Quraishi said.

“Undoubtedly, resorting to such inhuman and cowardly actions by India’s occupation army will in no way hinder the proud and honorable Kashmiri nation in their indigenous freedom movement,” Quraishi said.

The anniversary of the Kunan Poshpora mass gang rape by Indian soldiers is an opportunity to highlight the bravery and the struggle of Kashmiri women who continue to be a pillar of strength for the Kashmir freedom movement from Indian occupation.

“We urge the government of India and the Indian Army to hold an independent and transparent investigation of what happened at Kunan Poshpora. We demand that the United Nations, the Human Rights organizations and rights activists worldwide to condemn in clear words the use of rape as a weapon of war by Indian Army. The United Nations Security Council should ensure the implementation of UNSC resolutions on Kashmir to resolve the Kashmir dispute according to the wishes of the people of Kashmir,” Quraishi said.

The YFK is a grassroots lobbying group led by young Kashmiris and Pakistanis working to ensure justice to Kashmiris living under Indian military occupation.