MIRPUR(AJK): Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar ul Haq has said that the international community must take effective cognisance of the war crimes committed by the Indian occupation forces in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
While highlighting the woeful plight of Kashmiri widows, the PM said on Friday that women in Kashmir have been the worst victims of Indian state terrorism.
India, he said, has been using women as weapons of war in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which he said amounted to a war crime. He regrettably noted that sexual violence being leveraged as a weapon of war by the Indian forces in the region has been grossly overlooked at the international level.
Referring to the Indian brutalities in the region, the PM said that 22960 Kashmiri women have been widowed since 1989.
“More than 2000 women known as half widows are the silent victims of the long-drawn conflict”, the PM said, adding that these women whose partners have been subjected to enforced disappearance were living a miserable life.
He said that the level of Indian oppression could be gauged by the fact that the husbands of 200 women were subjected to enforced disappearance by the occupation forces in the village of Dardapora in Occupied Kashmir.
He said that Indian barbarism and brutalities have not only affected women in the IoK but a number of women have become widows due to firing by Indian forces on LoC.
He said that while the world was celebrating Widow’s Day, today, it was high time that the civilized nations across the globe should come forward and played their much-needed role to alleviate the sufferings of the Kashmiri widows who have been bearing the brunt of India’s oppression and brutality.
The PM said that his government would take appropriate measures for the permanent rehabilitation of widows who were living in difficult conditions.
He said that sustainable and lasting measures would be taken in the next financial year for the care and rehabilitation of widows and disabled persons.
He said that it was our collective and shared responsibility to help the poor and deserving people.