Daily Times

Protest sit-in was held under the aegis of Pasban-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir against Indian oppression on women in occupied Jammu and Kashmir on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Protestant women burnt the Indian Flag and demanded equal rights for women in IOK.

A large number of women took part in the anti-India protest, they marched from Burhan Wani Chowk to Ghari Pan Chowk while chanting slogans of Go India Go Back and Indian Occupiers, Leave Jammu and Kashmir.

While addressing the sit-in protest, speakers said that the International Women’s Rights Day is being celebrated across the globe under the slogan of Equal Every Where but the world continues to ignore the plight of Kashmiri women victims.

They were of the view that it is the responsibility of the international community to speak out against attacks by Indian terrorist forces on Kashmiri women.

They reiterated that International women rights organizations must take disciplinary action against the occupying forces involved in usurpation of women rights in IOK.

The speakers said that Indian forces sexually assaulted nine and a half thousand Kashmiri women, “The husbands of 2200 Kashmiri women have been missing for years and they have been forced to live a life of semi-widowhood.”

They lamented that husbands of thousands of women have been killed in the last 30 years and still Kashmiri women demanding freedom and rights.

Terming the violations of women rights in IOK, speakers added that Syeda Asiya Andrabi, Fehmida Sufi, Nahida Nasreen, Hina Bashir, Naseema Bano and Insha Jan are forced to live miserable lives in Indian jails.

The female speakers said that Asiya and Nilofer were killed by Indian occupiers after being sexually assaulted, “It is injustice to women that there is no international disciplinary action against Indian soldiers involved in all these crimes.”

Addressing the sit-in, the Kashmiri women said that the world should investigate the terrorist country (India) hiding behind the fake democratic face of India whose forces are waging war on women in the disputed state of Kashmir.

The speakers called on the United Nations, international human rights organizations Amnesty International and Asia Watch to take notice on the grave threats to humanity in occupied Kashmir and come forward to stop India from committing atrocities.

They paid tribute to the youth who were martyred in the struggle for independence in occupied Kashmir and said that millions of women in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan feel the pain and sorrow of Kashmiri sisters.

Uzair Ahmad Ghazali, Shaukat Javed Mir, Usman Ali Hashim, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Mehnaz Qureshi, Nisara Abbasi, Shagufta Noreen Kazmi, Maira Khan, Maryam Kashmiri, Shabnam Awan, Hasna Noor, Sajida Begum, Nuzhat Qureshi, Rukhsana Noor, Zahida Arif Habiba Majeed and others were also present on the occasion.