SRINAGAR: Hameedah Nayeem, Chairperson Kashmir Centre for Social and Developmental Studies (KCSDS), today submitted details regarding incidents of rape and sexual violence that have taken place over last two decades in J&K state before the Justice Verma Committee in Delhi.
The Committee has been set up by the Govt of India to receive recommendations from prominent women activists and scholars from all over India about the making of a new broad based law that can help in addressing and preventing violence against women in the back drop of recent gangrape in New Delhi.
According to a statement issued here, Hameedah spoke on the state violence and how it has exacerbated the public and domestic violence in the state.
She portrayed a whole context in which civilian space has been taken over by military which has shrunk the space for citizens in the state. In the highly militarized background citizenry ‘s life and death is under the control of army and other forces I n a context where there is no distinction between war and human rights abuse , the forces are not only not bound by rules of war or more importantly the rule of law but violate both with impunity Because after 1990 there are whole range of laws AFSPA , NSA , PSA DAA THAT HAVE GIVEN THEM UNBRIDLED POWERS t ‘ security forces’ against people of the state, the statement read.
The intrusion and penetration of military in the private civilian space has made women’s safety and security extremely vulnerable besides dissolving the distinction between military and civilian administration as most of the civilian functions are now taken over by the army, the statement quoted Hameedah of depositing before the commission.
Kashmir is ruled by a unified command with a facade of democratic govt.PEOPLE ARE UNDER THEIR CONTROL. and there are at least 900 rape and gangrape cases documented so far where as a large number has gone unnoticed as there has been a deluge of sexual violence . but no prosecution of the perpetrators has been ordered in the ‘interest of national security’, she said.
There is a need to interrogate such delusionary notions to be able to deliver justice in Kashmir , more particularly to the women of Kashmir who have been objectified vulgarized , demeaned and violated in every sense, she added.
The specific recommendations put before the committee by the KSCDS include: complete demilitarization of the entire civilian space, complete withdrawal of AFSPA and NSA 3, end to securitization of Kashmir and taking Kashmir as an extension of Pakistan because of which citizens especially women are terrorized and violated to inflict defeat on the enemy apart from, restraining media from valourizing army and distorting Kashmir related stories and prosecution of all the perpetrators of crimes against women and so on, it added.
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