More Than 30 Women Raped in a Single Night By Indian Army at Kunan Poshpora Village

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Kunan Poshspora incident was an alleged mass-rape that occurred on February 23, 1991, when unit of the Indian security forces after being fired upon by militants, launched a search operation in the twin villages of Kunan and Poshpora, located in Kashmir's remote Kupwara District.

More than 30 Kashmiri women were raped in tinny villages of Kunan and Poshpora in Kupwara district, Indian occupied Kashmir.

Video: Victims of Kupwara rape incident tell their story.

Most of them died that night of brutality or committed suicide because of shame in later days. But Those who survived the attack are still fighting for justice. Report by Aliya Nazki from BBC Urdu:

“We were getting ready for bed when the soldiers came. They took the men away. Some started drinking alcohol. I was holding my two-year-old daughter in my arms when they tried to grab me.
“I resisted, and in the scuffle, she fell out of my arms, and out of the window. She was crippled for life.
“Three soldiers grabbed me, tore my clothes, my shirt – I don’t even know what all happened after that. There were five of them. I still remember their faces, These were the words of Kulsoom (Not her real name), a victim of Kupwara Rape Case.”

Kupwara Rape incident or Kunan Poshspora incident was an alleged mass-rape that occurred on February 23, 1991, when unit of the Indian security forces after being fired upon by militants, launched a search operation in the twin villages of Kunan and Poshpora, located in Kashmir’s remote Kupwara District.

More than 26 years ago, Indian soldiers allegedly raped more than 30 women in the Kashmiri villages of Kunan and Poshpora.

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Another victim of the same incident from Poshpora village, name Fatima (Not her real name) describes what was happened with her at the night of February 23, 1991, in Kunan and Posphara villages of Kupwara district Jammu and Kashmir. Fatima was also in the same house. It had only been 11 days since her wedding.

“I had returned from my parents’ house that very day.
“Some soldiers asked my mother-in-law about all the new clothes hanging in the room, so she told them, ‘here, she is our new daughter-in-law, our new bride’.
“What happened after that, I cannot begin to describe it. We haven’t just been wronged, what we have faced is an infinite injustice. Even today when we see soldiers we start shaking with fear.”

Fatima describes the incident of her rape by Indian paramilitary forces.

This was not the first case of mass rape in Indian occupied Kashmir, Like Kunan and Poshpora, several villages were targeted by Indian Army on the name of so-called crackdowns and thousands of women were mass raped during past 30 years. Read the full Report below.

Indian Army Has Killed 95,238 Civilians in Kashmir Since 1989

Let’s move towards the details of Kupwara Rape Case in which victims are still waiting for justice since 1991 when It happened.

It was 23 February 1991. The people of Kunan, a tiny village in Indian administered Kashmir’s Kupwara district, were retiring for the night after a cold winter day. Fatima and Kulsoom (not their real names) were also getting ready to go to bed when they heard a series of loud knocks on the door.

At the time, India had started a large scale military operation in an attempt to control a popular armed insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir. So-called “cordon and search” operations, locally called “crackdowns”, were becoming routine and still persist to this day.

In the 1990s, this would entail Indian security forces isolating an area, getting all the men out, and then searching the houses. The men would be paraded in front of an informer – and suspected militants or those deemed sympathisers would be picked up and taken away.

When Fatima and Kulsoom saw soldiers on their doorstep that night, they thought it was the beginning of another of these so-called crackdowns. The men were taken away, and the soldiers came in, as was the established practice. But remembering that day makes their eyes fill with tears even now.

Kunan and Poshpora of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Area was put under lockdown that night.

The people of Kunan and Poshpora accuse the Indian army of carrying out a planned mass rape of the women in these two far-right flung villages. They also claim that while the women were gang-raped, the men were subjected to horrific torture and that they have been fighting for justice these last 26 years.

In Srinagar when I spoke with a minister in the state government, Naeem Akhtar, about these allegations he said that in conflicts like Kashmir truth often gets obscured by the layer of dust that settles on it. The BBC Urdu’s reporter Aliya Nazki narrates.

And now it seems a group of young Kashmiri women are determined to wipe this dust away. In 2013 they filed a petition to reopen the case in the state High Court.

Natasha Rather, a young scholar, is one of those women who put their names on that petition.

Natasha, along with four other young Kashmiri women, has also authored an award-winning book on this case, called Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora?

Natasha Rathar the author of the book "do you remember Kunan and Posphara?".
THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK “DO YOU REMEMBER KUNAN AND POSPHARA?.

Natasha said that their motivation for reopening the case was quite simple.

“This was such a big case of mass rape, in which those affected had actually come forward and had demonstrated so much courage. “And there was a huge body of evidence too. So we felt that this case needed to be reopened.”

Natasha Rathar told their motivation behind reopening of Kupwara Rape Case.

And it was reopened. After a long and difficult process the Jammu and Kashmir High Court directed the state government to pay compensation to those affected.

The state government initially agreed, but then changed its mind, and challenged the High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court of India, where the case is still being heard.

The Indian Army has always denied the allegations. When we requested an interview, they sent us a statement.

An army spokesperson told us that these allegations had been independently investigated three times, and that the case had been closed due to conflicting statements.

In Kashmir most officials seem to speak in what sound like cautious parables.

Nayeema Mahjoor The head of State commission for women's rights Kashmir.
Nayeema Ahmad Mahjoor says the crime should be proved in court

But not all. We spoke with Nayeema Ahmad Mahjoor, who heads the state commission for women’s rights.

She told us very clearly that she believes that this crime was committed against the people of Kunan and Poshpora, and that this should be proved in court.

She however stressed that the state government cannot interfere in the legal process.

What really happened in Kunan and Poshpora that fateful winter night is something we might never find out.

But a new generation is coming of age here now. The village and its houses are changing, and yet there are some painful memories that continue to haunt the residents.

The Story was originally posted on BBC news in October 2017.

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