The support group for Kunan Poshpora rape victims on Friday filed a petition in State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) asking the state government to provide status reports on the progress of 143 officially recorded complaints of sexual crimes.
In the petition, a list of 143 cases of sexual crimes, from 1989 to 2017, where combatants are involved (141 state forces and 2 militants) are provided. The petitioner has asked the state to disclose and develop guidelines on investigations, medical investigations, legal counsel and reparations for survivors of sexual violence.
The support group for Kunan Poshpora rape victims filed a petition against sexual violence in commemoration of Kashmiri women’s Resistance Day.
“Over the last 27 years, the survivors have struggled against this oppressive state culture of rape denial, silencing, and impunity for sexual crimes,” the petition reads.
“After further investigations were ordered in the case of mass rape in twin villages of Kunan Poshpora in 2013, the government of J&K, army and Union of India have actively worked to quell the matter. A stay was put on the proceedings of the case at both Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the Supreme Court of India,” it said.
It said in 2011, the SHRC ordered for payment of compensation, and re-investigation of the case.
“Since the escalation of armed hostilities in Jammu and Kashmir, the routine use of sexual crimes including rapes, assaults, abductions and trafficking as a weapon of war to collectively punish the Kashmiri population, has been documented by numerous human rights groups,” it said.
“The recent case of the rape and murder of a minor girl from Kathua by Special Police Officers, in which an additional director general Police stated that the motive was to “spread fear among the nomads” appears to be yet another case of this state policy,” the petition states.