Rape and kill: The morality of Indian army

Dr. Raja Muhammad Khan

On May 30, Indian army personnel deployed on counter insurgency duties in Shopian, 35 miles south of Srinagar, abducted two Kashmiri girls namely; 17-year-old Ayesha, a student of intermediate (first year) and her sister-in-law, the 22-year-old Nilofar.

Both girls were kidnapped from their orchard near their house and taken to an unknown place, most probably to Indian army camp, where these girls were gang raped by military personnel. After the rape, both were killed and their bodies thrown into a nearby shallow stream; Nallah Rambiara by the rapists; thus giving an impression as if it was a death caused because of drowning into the stream, rather by Indian army men. Upon recovery of the bodies, the local police and Indian army immediately stated that it was an accidental death by drowning. However they could not sell this scheme to the parents of the girls and the locals of Shopian, as the stream is so shallow that even school-going young boys and girls daily cross it on foot and there has never been an incident of such type in this stream as yet. Parents and locals of the area stated that upon their disappearance from the orchard at 4 P.M, they searched for them all around including the stream, but could not find them. Once the news spread over to the area, the local police station and Indian army camps, the bodies of the girls were thrown into the stream during the dark hours and next morning they found their bodies in the stream. Although the local medical authorities has yet not announced the official results of the medical result, but sources close to the doctors, who conducted the post mortem, have confirmed that both girls were raped and then killed. There were visible torture marks on their bodies and their clothes were also torn off during the process. Indian army has firmly denied its involvement in the incident, but the parents of the girls and the locals of Shopian have rejected their stance and asked for a neutral judicial inquiry of the rape followed by murder. It has been learnt that Chief Minister of the Occupied Kashmir, Mr. Omer Abdullah has also ordered a belated inquiry of this inhuman incident. Following the incident, there broke out widespread protests and demonstrations against occupying Indian army and State administration throughout the Occupied Kashmir. Already fed up with Indian Military brutalities, the people of Kashmir are demanding their freedom from India. During these demonstrations, the popular slogans noticed by media are; "we want independence and Indian army to go back from Kashmir". In order to prevent them from leading the protest rallies, most of the Kashmiri leaders, especially the APHC leadership like; Syed Ali Shah Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik have been detained either in various jails or in their respective residences, which have been declared as sub-jails for an indefinite period. To prevent the peaceful Kashmiri demonstrations, additional Para-military forces have been deployed in various parts of the Valley by India. But even then hundreds of protests and demonstrations are being conducted against the inhuman incident with the demand that, the guilty security forces men should be punished and a murder and rape case registered against all those responsible for the act. They question that how can anybody get drowned in a stream which has very low water level? Finding it difficult to control the protestors, the State Government has imposed curfew in the Shopian and Pulwama. Indian security forces have resorted to live firing, used tear gas and smoke shells to disperse the protestors, which resulted in the death of a business man and wounded hundreds of peaceful Kashmiri demonstrators. Lately, due to the strong protest of the people, a rape case has been registered against unidentified persons under section 376 IPC by local police for further investigation, but section 302 (murder case) has not been included in the FIR for unknown reasons. Indeed this is neither the first nor the last incident of rape by morally corrupt invading Indian army in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). The incidents of rape and sexual abuses of women by Indian security forces have been a routine ever since the start of freedom struggle by Kashmiri people. Since 1990, the rape has systematically been used as a means of punishing women of all those areas which were suspected of supporting the Kashmiri freedom fighters. Beside rape, molestation, sodomy and many other forms of sexual abuses have widely been practised by the Indian security forces on women, youth and children in the state. A report of International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO) observes that; "The Indian state is fully behind the wrongdoings (rapes), as it has been proved by its failure to hold any credible investigation and to punish the guilty. The Indian state encourages this as a matter of policy. Similar behaviour is carried out by security forces in respect of other minority communities elsewhere in the Punjab, Assam and other minority regions and communities". The Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights have noted in their joint report that the Indian security forces have frequently committed rapes as a part of their counter insurgency operations and have used rape as a weapon to punish or intimidate female victims". A Paris-based international human rights group FIDH has written that; "Rape is not uncommon and there is evidence of its employment as an instrument of terror against the Kashmiri women. The infamous mass-rape by the Indian army at Kunan Poshpora was reported widely in press both in India and abroad. It is to date the most sickening example of the brutal excesses of the security forces against women of the region. There have been numerous examples of rape, molestations and sexual humiliation. Women of all ages have been raped, but there are no reliable figures for the total numbers." Besides these collective incidents, there are hundreds of individual and isolated cases of rapes which have not been reported in the press either being inaccessible or locals did not report those to avoid social embarrassment. There have been dozens of the incidents of gang rapes by Indian security forces in various parts of the Valley, especially in areas worst hit by the freedom struggle. During these gang rapes Indian forces did not care for the marital status of women. They did not bother about the age group or condition of women (whether pregnant, elderly or minor girls). During the early days of Kashmiris renewed struggle for their right of self-determination, there have been numerous acts of rapes and molestation of women. A few are being quoted here. In April 1990, a bride and her maid were gang raped by more than 20 BSF soldiers in Anantnag district. On February 23/24, 1991, personnel of 4th Rajputana Rifles of Indian Army entered the houses of the villagers and gang raped around 100 women on gun point without any consideration of age group. From September 11-19, 1991; during the operation "Wuller", Indian army held a large number of populace during siege and search operation in Bandipore sub-division, killing 15, disabling more than 300 by torture and gang raped more than 24 women. In October 1992, nine women and a girl aged just 11 years were raped in Shopian village by the personnel of an Indian army unit. Similarly there are many cases yet to be recorded. Asia Watch and the Physicians for Human Rights in 1993 observed that "Rape is used as a means to target those women whom the security forces accuse of being sympathizers of the militants. In raping them the security forces are attempting to punish and humiliate the entire community". Similarly most of the cases of rape and sexual molestation occur during house-to-house searches by security forces. Male members are taken to interrogation centres and their women are raped by left-over soldiers. As per the report of Britain's Independent, dated September 18, 1990: "Women are strung up naked from trees and their breast lacerated with knives as the Indian soldiers tell them that their breast will never give milk again to new born militants. Women are raped in front of their husbands and children or paraded naked through villages and beaten on the breasts". This is a very brief account of rape and sexual molestation of Kashmiri women at the hands of barbaric Indian Security Forces. However, the detail and the recent incident of rape and killing of two girls should be enough to awaken the conscience of the international community, the champions of human rights. Besides India, the "entire humanity is ashamed by this heart breaking incident and it has created an urge that until and unless there is complete withdrawal of Indian troops from Kashmir, nothing is secure there." The puppet Chief Minister, Omer Abdullah, the third generation of the Abdullah Dynasty, holding on the reign of IOK, could have taken stringent note of the incident through provisioning of speedy justice to the grieved family even at the cost of his chief ministership. This could have raised his status in the eyes of oppressed Kashmiri masses, whose chances of freedom from Dogra Raj and subsequently from Indian yoke were capped by his grandfather, Sh. Muhammad Abdullah, a close collaborator of first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Time is ripe for international community to play its part for the just resolution of the longest unresolved issue present on the agenda of United Nations. But regretfully, there has been muted response from the international com