SRINAGAR: Terming Wajahat Habibullahs recent comments on rapes in Kashmir as better late than never, the head of the Hurriyat (G), Syed Ali Shah Geelani, on Friday said that all criminal assaults by forces personnel in the state should be probed by an international body.
Now that Wajahat Habibullahs conscience has woken up, he should not limit himself to issuing paper statements but actively demand the prosecution of forces personnel involved in mass rapes in Kashmir, he said. At least no one can accuse him of maligning the Indian forces at the behest of the ISI.
Since responsible figures in the India establishment have begun to acknowledging the atrocities committed on women in Kashmir, the international community must come forward to bring to light the facts about hundreds of cases from Kunan Poshpora to Shopian, Geelani said a day after Habibullah, who is the chairman of the Indian Minorities Commission, spoke of “massive allegations of rape” against forces in Kashmir.
The personnel involved in these incidents where defenceless and innocent Kashmiri women have fallen prey to mass rapes must be punished under international law, he said in a statement from New Delhi.
Indian people, civil society and particularly the media adopt double-standards over incidents of rape and other human rights violation in Kashmir, and this criminal silence has exposed Indias claims of democracy in the eyes of Kashmiris who have lost faith in Indian democracy, he said.
People who have rightly been shaken by the Delhi gang-rape should also, with a cool and calm mind, reflect on the condition of Kashmiri woman, because the honour of women is alike, be it the victim in Delhi or the victims in Shopian, he said.
Those having moral courage in India should help in bringing forces personnel involved in rapes in Kashmir to book, and the Indian civil society should come out of its discriminatory mentality and raise its voice for the victimised women of Kashmir, he said.
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