ISLAMABAD:As the world is observing the International Widows Day today, miseries and victimization of the Kashmiri women at the hands of Indian troops, police and agencies continue unabated in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
According to a report released by the Research Section of reporter on the occasion of the International Widows Day, the unabated Indian state terrorism rendered 22,944 women widowed since January 1989 till date as their husbands were martyred by Indian military, paramilitary and police personnel.
It said over two hundred women whose husbands were subjected to custodial disappearance after their arrest by Indian troops and police during the last 34 years are referred to as half widows.
According the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons and other human rights groups in IIOJK, more than 8,000 men have disappeared in the custody of Indian troops and police personnel since 1989, it said. For years, half-widows in IIOJK have been running from one Indian army and paramilitary camps to another trying to find whereabouts of their husbands, it added.
The report maintained that over 650 women have been martyred by the troops and paramilitary forces since January 2001 till date. It pointed out that womenfolk constitutes the majority of the Kashmiris suffering from multiple psychic problems.
“Due to unending agony, Kashmiri widows, half-widows are suffering from psychological problems. As per a study, women comprise more than 60% of psychiatric patients in IIOJK,” it added.
The report said the Kashmiri women were targeted for raising their voice against Indian brutalities. Dozens of women including Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen and others were languishing in different jails of India and IIOJK for their affiliation with the ongoing right to self-determination movement, it said.
The report underscored that the International Widows Day was a reminder for the world to realize the plight of Kashmiri widows, half-widows.
“International Widows Day is a day to raise awareness about the sufferings of the Kashmiri widows, half-widows. World must not forget the trauma Kashmiri widows and half-widows are enduring,” it said. The report said the presence of large number of widows and half-widows was testimony to Indian troops’ tyranny in IIOJK.
It said that the world must raise its voice over the plight of Kashmiri half-widows whose husbands have disappeared in the custody of Indian troops.
Meanwhile, APHC leaders Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja and rights activists in their separate statements in Srinagar said the Kashmiri women were the worst victims of Indian state terrorism in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir. They said thousands of women have lost their husbands, brothers and sons as they were martyred or subjected to custodial disappearance by Indian troops.
The women are in pain as the authorities not handover bodies of martyrs to their families, since last three years in the territory, report said.