Concern expressed over scrape of Kashmiri women

LONDON: A UK-based Kashmiri organisation has expressed concern over the plight of women in the Indian held Kashmir and said it was a matter of great alarm for all human rights bodies.

Nazir Ahmed Shawl, Executive Director, Justice Foundation Kashmir Centre, in a statement on the occasion of international women's day said women have been used as a weapon of war by the Indian administration in Occupied Kashmir.

"From Kunan Poosh Pora to Sopore there are abundant examples where we came across the orgy of harassment and humiliation of women folk."

According to Shawl, women have suffered psychological and physical horrors at the hands of Indian troops.

"Many villages in Indian occupied Kashmir are known as villages of raped women.

There are women who have no news about their husbands who were picked up by the forces and they vaporized without leaving any sign behind.

These women are half widows," he stated.

The Kashmiri leader appealed to the international community to help in bringing an honourable and just peace to the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir and restore the dignity of all the people including the suffering women in Kashmir.