Kashmiri women have narrated the ordeal they suffered at the hands of Kashmir’s Islamic terrorists in the name of jihad. Stories of systematic rape and abuse of these women that began when they were just girls and continued for years are both heartwrenching and eye-opening at the same time. They highlight the true nature of Islamists.
The Diplomat notes that such stories have been recorded across all districts of the state. “Data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau shows that the number of cases of violence against women in Jammu and Kashmir increased by 11 percent in 2020, from 3,069 in 2019 to 3,414 the next year – even while the national rate fell by 8.3 percent during the same period”, highlights the report.
It must be noted that reporting is also low in view of the conservative and patriarchal nature of the Islamic society where victims are subjected to shame and social boycott. The problem is compounded by the fact that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge that upholders of sharia commit rapes. It is, however, not the statistics but the similarity in the modus operandi of the terrorists that stood out in the ordeal narrated by the victims. The jihadis first seek out food and shelter from the residents which are followed by demands of sexual satiation.
Islamists who came knocking on her doors at Ganderbal in 2005 when Fatima had just turned 14, took advantage of her father’s death after being shot dead close to their home and began sexually abusing her at every available opportunity. The gangrapes continued till she became 17-years-old when she wanted her family to get her married off. When no man came forward to marry her, she was wedded to her wheelchair-bound first cousin but the abuse didn’t end as the jihadis sought out her new address and continued the abuse even after she was pregnant with her husband’s second child.
Afroza had a similar story to tell. One of the rooms in their tiny two-room house was occupied by the terrorists forcing the women to stay in the kitchen the whole day while her father tried his best to serve the terrorists. “Bring us water – they’d order from their room, And when I went in, they’d grab me and start fondling and teasing me. I was a little under 12 then. I didn’t even know what all was being done to me. All I knew was it was wrong and painful. And this continued for a very long time”, the report quotes her as saying. When she confided in her father who asked the terrorists to keep the children out of their evil designs, he was taken to the market and murdered in front of everyone the next day.
After the terrorists shot dead Bismah’s husband, she was treated as a ‘war booty’ and taken by her husband’s murderers who put her through unspeakable horrors. The torture that began when she was 18 years went on till she turned 27.
When Islamic jihad became a tool used by the terrorists to wage war against the Bharatiya state in the 1990s, women were expected to play a supporting role. “Several radical political leaders of Kashmir have called upon women to give their bodies to the men who fight the holy war, becoming proud wives and mothers of the militants. Movements like the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, led by women, have called for harsh Shariah to be implemented and meted out beatings to women for not sticking to dress codes and yardsticks of religious morality”, says The Diplomat.
Uri resident Chasfeeda rued that there was none who wanted to hear her story and that she was poor added to her woes. The terrorists sent her husband away to get some work done and then raped her. “I don’t know which group they belonged to or what their politics was. But whatever morality and piety they preach is bogus. Just to mislead people. Only Allah knows what evil truly lies in their hearts”, the reporters quote her as saying.
These stories never make it to the mainstream media debates and politicians cover-up for the terrorists under the pretext of ‘Kashmiri pride’ which further pushes such tales of brutal assault and immorality into oblivion.
