Justice continues to elude from families of Shopian double rape and murder victims despite the passage of thirteen years.
According to Kashmir media service, Aasiya and Nelofar were abducted, raped and subsequently killed by the men in uniform in Shopian and their bodies were found on 30th May, 2009.
It said the Shopian double rape and murder is a chilling example of Indian troops’ brutalities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and the incident was a witness to institutionalized and structured violence that India was using in the territory.
The report deplored Indian troops for harassing, torture and rape women to suppress the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle. As many as 11,255 cases of rape, gang-rape and molestation by Indian troops have been reported in IIOJK since 1990, it added.
The report lamented that the Kashmiri women were subjected to the worst kind of torture by Indian troops owing to their role in the freedom movement. Kashmiri women are the worst victims of Indian state terrorism as India is using rape of the Kashmiri women as a weapon of war in IIOJK.
It said India is employing rape as a military tactic to terrorize and humiliate Kashmiris, adding the international community must wake up to stop sexual violence being used as a war tactic by India in IIOJK and India must be brought to book for committing heinous crimes against the Kashmiris.
Shakeel Ahngar, husband of Neelofar and brother of Aasiya, who has lost faith in the Indian institutions, demanded justice from independent international forums.
Shakeel in its interview had said he has now completely lost faith in all institutions of India and the occupied territory and demanded a probe by an independent international agency into the Shopian incident.
“I have nothing new to add to my poignant tale that I have already recounted umpteen times. The justice delivery system in this part of world stands frozen,” he said.
He added that all investigations initiated by the occupation authorities were a smokescreen used to shield the perpetrators.
“The killers, the rapists, are the ones who are doing the investigation,” says the father of one. How can you trust a system that is run by the very people who are part of the society that questions the integrity of a woman who has been raped?” he asked. He, however, said that he would never succumb to any pressure. “I am relentless in my pursuit for justice, come what may,” Ahangar added.
APHC leaders including Zamrooda Habib, Yasmeen Raja, Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League, Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League and Jammu Kashmir Freedom Party in their separate statements paying tributes to Aasiya and Neelofar termed the Shopian double rape and murder tragedy as a serious attack on the collective conscience of the people of Jammu and Kashmir .
They said the Shopian tragedy had shaken the conscience of the people of the Kashmir Valley and it could not be neglected in anyway.