There have been persistent reports that women have been raped by the security forces in Kashmir, the most well-known incident is that reported in Feb. 1990 in Kunan Poshpura a village in district of Kupwara. Amnesty

 

KUNAN POSHPURA: There have been persistent reports of women raped by security forces in Kashmir. A well-known incident occurred in Feb.91 in Kunan Poshpura, a village in the district of Kupwara. This is close to the Line of Control which separates Indian held Kashmir from Pakistan. The 4 Rajput rifles Battalion raided Kunan Poshpura on the night of Feb.2324, 1991. Several hundred soldiers surrounded the village during counterinsurgency operations and began house to house searches. Many men were taken away and interrogated, some tortured to reveal the activities of Kashmin militant organizations. During this raid 23 women were raped in their homes at gun point, the youngest was a girl of 13, named Mirza while the oldest victim was a80yroldnamedJana. Some were gang raped, others in front of their children.

The allegations were investigated by several different officials. A district magistrate shocked by the allegations concluded that there was sufficient evidence to warrant a full inquiry. The army denied the allegations and appointed a brigadier to conduct an inquiry. He dismissed the allegations of rape as “malicious and untrue.” The divisional commissioner visited the village on March 18 and recommended a judicial inquiry. To investigate the incident.

A two member team of the Press” council of India appointed by. the: Government, visited Kunan Poshpura for one day, It dismissed the statements of at least nine rape victims because of what it described as inconsistencies, Medical evidence, which may have indicated rape, was described as worthless.

The Indian government involved the results of the army brigadier’s and the Press Council enquiries as justification to claim that rape did not occur

However it withheld the medical findings on the Kunan Poshpura victims included in the Press council’s report and in the findings of the inquiry conducted by the divisional commissioner, Who is a senior civil administration official, His recommendation that there should be a thorough investigation was never implemented.

Article extracted from this publication >>  March 12, 1993