BRUSSELS: Speakers at a conference held in Brussels expressed deep concern over the international community’s silence regarding India’s ongoing oppression of Kashmiri women in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
Titled as ‘International Women’s Conference’, the event was organized by the Kashmir Council Europe at the European Press Club in Brussels. The conference highlighted the horrific abuses faced by women at the hands of Indian forces in IIOJK.
The speakers included Ali Raza Syed, Chairman of Kashmir Council Europe; European activist Ella Farooqi; Kashmiri scholar Amina Iqbal; and young Kashmiri intellectual Wasi Syed. The event was moderated by human rights activist Naveen Qayoom.
The speakers stated that Indian forces in IIOJK are systematically targeting women with brutal violence. They recalled the tragic mass rape in Kunan Poshpora in 1991, where nearly 100 women were assaulted, and the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Neelofar in 2009. These horrific events remain fresh in the minds of Kashmiris, and it is deeply saddening that the perpetrators, members of the Indian army, continue to roam freely.
The speakers emphasized that India is using the rape of women in the occupied territory as a weapon of war. They pointed out that under the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Indian forces are granted unchecked powers.
Chairman of Kashmir Council EU, Ali Raza Syed, stated that peace is linked to justice, and as long as Kashmiris are denied justice, lasting prosperity and sustainable peace cannot be established in South Asia.
