Kashmir: Anniversary of the Kunan Poshpora rapes

[Bashira_taeli]

Kunan Poshpora incident


The Kunan Poshpora 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 allegedly[1] 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.[2][3][4][5]

Although the Indian government′s investigations into the incident rejected the allegations as "baseless,"[6] international human rights organizations have expressed serious doubts about the integrity of these investigations and the manner in which they were conducted, stating that the Indian government launched a "campaign to acquit the army of charges of human rights violations and discredit those who brought the charges."[7][8]

Allegations of mass rape

According to reports, on February 23, 1991 at approximately 11:00PM soldiers from the 4th Rajputana Rifles cordoned off the village of Kunan Poshpora to conduct a search operation. The soldiers allegedly gang raped a large number of village women overnight till 9:00 AM the next day.[9] Local villagers alleged that up to 100 women "were gang-raped without any consideration of their age, married, unmarried, pregnancy etc.,"[9]

The victims ranged in age from 13 to 80.[10] The village headman and other leaders have claimed that they reported the rapes to army officials on February 27, but the officials denied the charges and refused to take any further action. However, army officials claim that no report was ever made.[3] On March 5, villagers complained to Kupwara district magistrate S.M. Yasin, who visited the village on March 7 to investigate. In his final report, he stated that the soldiers "behaved like wild beasts"[9] and described the attack as :A large number of armed personnel entered into the houses of villagers and at gunpoint they gang-raped 23 ladies, without any consideration of their age, married, unmarried, pregnancy etc… there was a hue and cry in the whole village.[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunan_Poshpora_incident

 

[the Great Khan]

According to Amnesty International, rape in India "is so routine that a 1988 newspaper headline read: `Another mass
rape by Bihar cops.' In September 1989 the Rajasthan state government admitted that the police had been involved in
over 50 rapes in the past few years. According to the Delhi police, 14 cases of rape were reported involving 20 police
officers at 12 police stations between 1 January and 11 February 1990." Amnesty International, India: Torture, Rape
and Deaths in Custody, (London: March, 1992).

seems to be endemic within their society. Im sure we're not angels but havent seen any rsearch on it from our side..

 

[UmarAkmals-fan]

shame on the cowards

 

[GentleMan]

shame on the rapists.

 

[the Great Khan]

some more incidents:

On the night of October 10, 1992, an army unit of the 22nd Grenadiers22 entered the village of Chak
Saidapora, about four kilometers south of the town of Shopian, district Pulwama, on a search operation for
suspected militants. During the operation, at least six and probably nine women, including an eleven-year-
old girl and a 60-year-old woman, were gang-raped by several of the army soldiers.

 

[chacha kashmiri]

Apparently rape is used in kashmir to silence 'terrorist' helpers

Must beat water boarding

 

[Bhaijaan]

Shameful if true.

 

[mithun_minhas]

Govt do paternity tests if any babies are born out of that rape?

Just do the DNA test for all the people in the Rajputana regeiment and see if any soldier is found. Even if one soldier is convicted, it means rapes are happening and Indian Govt will be exposed.

 

[kaayal]

shame to see these rapists representing my country.never understood why this government don't take action against these rapists.

 

[Markhor]

Rape used as a weapon of war - who needs tanks when a military can simply psychologically traumatise a nation with such filthy and disgraceful tactics. Shame on the international organisations who have failed to act and have remained silence in the face of such horrors.

 

[UmarAkmals-fan]

Rape used as a weapon of war - who needs tanks when a military can simply psychologically traumatise a nation with such filthy and disgraceful tactics. Shame on the international organisations who have failed to act and have remained silence in the face of such horrors.

sad thing is rape has been used all the militarys for as long as one can remember ...just Google "the rape on nanking" by the japanese army ...yet armys has always been portrayed as the holy warriors who could do nothing wrong

 

[Bhaijaan]

sad thing is rape has been used all the militarys for as long as one can remember ...just Google "the rape on nanking" by the japanese army ...yet armys has always been portrayed as the holy warriors who could do nothing wrong

Which is why international organizations can't really put pressures on countries regarding these matters as basically all of them have been at some point accused of doing the same. Its a global issue really and we ordinary citizens must always put pressure on our govts to make sure such atrocities are not being committed by our 'heroes'. Unfortunately Indian people cannot be bothered with it as random bomb attacks every now and then across India diverts their attention to their internal problems and the fact that Kashmir has been alienated from India has not helped its cause one bit. As much as we talk about Kashmir being India's part, we have never really been able to discuss their issues as 'our' issues.

 

[UmarAkmals-fan]

Which is why international organizations can't really put pressures on countries regarding these matters as basically all of them have been at some point accused of doing the same. Its a global issue really and we ordinary citizens must always put pressure on our govts to make sure such atrocities are not being committed by our 'heroes'. Unfortunately Indian people cannot be bothered with it as random bomb attacks every now and then across India diverts their attention to their internal problems and the fact that Kashmir has been alienated from India has not helped its cause one bit. As much as we talk about Kashmir being India's part, we have never really been able to discuss their issues as 'our' issues.

well said

its just sickening when i see japanese ppl here in hong kong still defending actions of there army when they occupied china ..same with pakistanis who defend the pakistan army in bangladesh 1971 or indians defending what the army did in punjab in 1984 and kashmir ..debating these ppl is like talking to a wall ..soldiers do these kind of things because they know they have lots of idiots who would swear on there holy books to prove there innocence

 

[saeedhk]

Disgusting.

 

[shakil]

Do we have any recent reports on human rights violation by Indian armies in Kashmir? We have plenty of reports for the 90s period but apart from statements from Arundhati Roy, very little ...

As for the OP, 53 rape victims from the accident in Kunan poshora are still waiting for a justice (http://www.frontlinekashmir.org/2012/03/53-mass-rape-survivors-still-wait-for.html)

 

[Madplayer]

Kashmir 'mass rape' survivors fight for justice

More than 26 years ago, Indian soldiers allegedly raped more than 30 women in the Kashmiri villages of Kunan and Poshpora. Those who survived the attack are still fighting for justice, as Aliya Nazki from BBC Urdu reports.

It was 23 February 1991. The people of Kunan, a tiny village in Indian administered Kashmir's Kupwara district, were retiring for the night after a cold winter day. Zooni and Zarina (not their real names) were also getting ready to go to bed when they heard a series of loud knocks on the door.

At the time, India had started a large scale military operation in an attempt to control a popular armed insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir. So-called "cordon and search" operations, locally called "crackdowns", were becoming routine and still persist to this day.

In the 1990s, this would entail Indian security forces isolating an area, getting all the men out, and then searching the houses. The men would be paraded in front of an informer - and suspected militants or those deemed sympathisers would be picked up and taken away.

When Zooni and Zareena saw soldiers on their doorstep that night, they thought it was the beginning of another of these so-called crackdowns. The men were taken away, and the soldiers came in, as was the established practice. But remembering that day makes their eyes fill with tears even now.

"We were getting ready for bed when the soldiers came. They took the men away. Some started drinking alcohol. I was holding my two-year-old daughter in my arms when they tried to grab me.

"I resisted, and in the scuffle she fell out of my arms, and out of the window. She was crippled for life.

"Three soldiers grabbed me, tore my pheran, my shirt - I don't even know what all happened after that. There were five of them. I still remember their faces."

Zareena was also in the same house. It had only been 11 days since her wedding.

"I had returned from my parents' house that very day.

"Some soldiers asked my mother-in-law about all the new clothes hanging in the room, so she told them, 'here, she is our new daughter-in-law, our new bride'.

"What happened after that, I cannot begin to describe it. We haven't just been wronged, what we have faced is an infinite injustice. Even today when we see soldiers we start shaking with fear."

The people of Kunan and neighbouring Poshpora accuse the Indian army of carrying out a planned mass rape of the women in these two far-flung villages. They also claim that while the women were gang-raped, the men were subjected to horrific torture, and that they have been fighting for justice these last 26 years.

In Srinagar when I spoke with a minister in the state government, Naeem Akhtar, about these allegations he said that in conflicts like Kashmir truth often gets obscured by the layer of dust that settles on it.

And now it seems a group of young Kashmiri women are determined to wipe this dust away.

In 2013 they filed a petition to reopen the case in the state High Court.

Natasha Rathar, a young scholar, is one of those women who put their names on that petition.

Natasha, along with four other young Kashmiri women, has also authored an award-winning book on this case, called Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora?

Natasha said that their motivation for reopening the case was quite simple.

"This was such a big case of mass rape, in which those affected had actually come forward and had demonstrated so much courage.

"And there was a huge body of evidence too. So we felt that this case needed to be reopened."

And it was reopened. After a long and difficult process the Jammu and Kashmir High Court directed the state government to pay compensation to those affected.

The state government initially agreed, but then changed its mind, and challenged the High Court's decision in the Supreme Court of India, where the case is still being heard.

The Indian Army has always denied the allegations.

When we requested an interview, they sent us a statement.

An army spokesperson told us that these allegations had been independently investigated three times, and that the case had been closed due to conflicting statements.

In Kashmir most officials seem to speak in what sound like cautious parables.

But not all. We spoke with Nayeema Ahmad Mahjoor, who heads the state commission for women's rights.

She told us very clearly that she believes that this crime was committed against the people of Kunan and Poshpora, and that this should be proved in court.

She however stressed that the state government cannot interfere in the legal process.

What really happened in Kunan and Poshpora that fateful winter night is something we might never find out.

But a new generation is coming of age here now. The village and its houses are changing, and yet there are some painful memories that continue to haunt the residents.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41268906

 

[Madplayer]

We will never forget. We will never forgive.

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

We will never forget. We will never forgive.

The powerful of the world are an altogether different kind of existence.

 

[Hitman]

We will never forget. We will never forgive.

Even I'm ashamed in this case. Neither will I forgive those scums. And this is something straight from my heart. What they did is a big black blot on my country.

 

[Rana]

Tragic event. Saw a documentary of this in which a pregnant women testified about the attack she suffered at the hands of Indian army soldiers. Truly heartbreaking!

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today is Kashmir Women Resistance Day. For 7 decades, Indian forces have committed war crimes against women in IOJK. Their sufferings have multiplied after 5 Aug siege by Modi Govt. I urge world community, esp women, to become voice of resilient Kashmiri women for peace in IOJK.</p>— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1231551977106157568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Iqbal'sh]

Even I'm ashamed in this case. Neither will I forgive those scums. And this is something straight from my heart. What they did is a big black blot on my country.

How about starting by providing some relief to the victims by getting your military & judiciary to buck up their ideas.
Another high profile incident where the casualties are from a minority grouping and again your government & institutions are trolling them

 

[Down2Earth]

A day will come when they will pay for all that has been done.

 

[Hitman]

How about starting by providing some relief to the victims by getting your military & judiciary to buck up their ideas.
Another high profile incident where the casualties are from a minority grouping and again your government & institutions are trolling them

You’re sure I can do it?

 

[Iqbal'sh]

You’re sure I can do it?

I realise you can’t do this, my post was highlighting the failure of the Indian machinery to look after ostensibly what they call their own people.
It should have been a response to the thread not your post.

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

A day will come when they will pay for all that has been done.

InshAllah

 

[Mesozoic]

A day will come when they will pay for all that has been done.

Said a half million Kashmir Pandits who were driven out of their homes , lost loved ones to murder and rape and left without a shelter over their heads on a cold January day of 1990.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today is Int Day for Elim of Sexual Violence. While societies all over are confronted with this menace & govts, incl ours, are fighting this crime, it is condemnable when states themselves indulge in this crime as Indian govts as a matter of policy have been doing in IOJK</p>— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShireenMazari1/status/1273887004401504257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[El Generico]

Said a half million Kashmir Pandits who were driven out of their homes , lost loved ones to murder and rape and left without a shelter over their heads on a cold January day of 1990.

what's the point of this post? Even if we go by your argument is the mass rape by the Indian army justified?

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

Animals.

All of them should be hanged and left to rot for their crimes against humanity.

 

[ahmedzee]

Said a half million Kashmir Pandits who were driven out of their homes , lost loved ones to murder and rape and left without a shelter over their heads on a cold January day of 1990.

So that justifies mass rape? I hope something similar happens within your family for you to realize how it feels.