Rameez Makhdoomi
The stars and moon are the witness and on judgment day our tormentors shall pay a heavy price.”
On account of lingering Kashmir conflict since many decades our hearts as kashmiris are wounded, bruised andshattered and more so on 23 rd February on account of the savage act of mass rape committed against daughters of our nation .As we mark the 23rd anniversary of the heinous mass rape committed against number of women of our unfortunate nation Kashmir our breathes stand soaked by continuous oppression. The Kunan Poshspora mass rape incident occurred on February 23, 1991, when units of the Indian army launched a search and interrogation operation in the village of Kunan Poshpora, located in Kashmir’s remote Kupwara District. At least 53 women were gang raped by soldiers that night. However, Human Rights organizations including Human Rights Watch have reported that the number of raped women could be as high as 100.
Pain and misery in form of brutal aftermath has continued to haunt the victims of this carnage .In a Global Press Institute report, one of the victim had narrated horror in these painful words: “The army entered our houses at 10 in the evening and left at 9 in the morning. First, they took out the men, and only God knows what they did to us then.”
She says that no one in the village was spared.
“There were screams everywhere – from almost every house in the village,” she says.Despite the high number of women who were raped, she says that many declined to report the incidents because of the stigma suffered by the women who did.
No justice was delivered to victims. As noted international human rights organizations observed Indian government launched a “campaign to acquit the army of charges of human rights violations and discredit those who brought the charges.”
Asia Watch, in its 1991 report, stated:
“The alacrity with which military and government authorities in Kashmir discredited the allegations of rape and their failure to follow through with procedures that would provide critical evidence for any prosecution – in particular prompt medical examinations of the alleged rape victims — raise serious concerns about the integrity of the investigation…Given evidence of a possible cover-up, both the official and the Press Council investigation fall far short of the measures necessary to establish the facts in the incident and determine culpability.
The United States Department of State, in its 1992 report on international human rights, rejected the Indian government’s conclusion, and determined that there was “was credible evidence to support charges that an elite army unit engaged in mass rape in the Kashmiri village of Kunan Poshpora.
MUZAFFAR RAINA reporting for Daily Telegraph IN KUNAN POSHPORA (NORTH KASHMIR) under the story titled Kashmir grannies who fear kids’ questions published in 2012 had written :
Five of the alleged rape victims, four of whom were grandmothers, have died.
One woman said: “They raped my mother-in-law, who was around 70 years old, her two daughters-in-law including me, and her granddaughter-in-law. There were cries from everywhere. My mother-in-law died heartbroken a few years ago.”
Many other have on similar paradigm captured the pain of this horrific incident. Despite trauma Kunan Poshpora stands as epic symbol of resistance against oppression and state injustice.
On this sad day our message is loud and clear to the global community as nation of Kashmir is that on dark night of February 23, 1991 even the angels would have wept tears of blood. The stars and moon are the witness and on judgment day our tormentors shall pay a heavy price.