Justice continues to elude families of Shopian double rape and murder victims despite the passage of thirteen years. According to a report released by Kashmir Media Service on the 13th anniversary of Shopian rape and double murder incident, the victims Aasiya and Neelofar were abducted, raped and subsequently killed by the men in uniform in Shopian and their bodies were found on the intervening night of 29th and 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 is witness to institutionalized and structured violence that India is using in the territory.

The report deplored harassment, torture and rape of Kashmiri women by Indian troops to suppress the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle. Over 11,000 cases of rape, gang-rape and molestation by Indian troops, paramilitary and police personnel have been reported in IIOJK since 1990. 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.The victim family who has lost faith in the Indian institutions, demanded justice from independent international forums. APHC senior vice Chairman Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar while paying tributes to Aasiya and Neelofar in a statement issued in Srinagar termed the Shopian double rape and murder tragedy as a serious attack on the collective conscience of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The statement said that the Shopian tragedy had shaken the conscience of the people of the Kashmir Valley and it could not be neglected in anyway.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP