ISLAMABAD: When International Mother’s Day was observed today across the world, thousands of Kashmiri women continue to wait for the return of their sons subjected to enforced disappearance in custody by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir.
A report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on International Mother’s Day, pointed out that continued Indian state terrorism had resulted in the killing of 96,025 Kashmiris including women and children from 1989 to 8th May 2022.
As many as 22,944 women have been widowed by the Indian forces and 11,255 raped, disgraced or molested during the period
It said, relatives including mothers, wives and daughters of illegally detained Hurriyat leaders, activists and youth have expressed serious concern over the health of their relatives languishing in different jails of India and IIOJK.
The report deplored that near two dozen women, including 62-year-old resistance leader, Aasiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen Fehmeeda Sofi, Shazia Akhter and Insha Tariq were illegally facing detention in different jails, including India’s infamous Tihar jail, on false charges.
The report pointed out that the troops had subjected about 8,000 Kashmiris to custodial disappearance during the period and the mothers of the majority of these disappeared people had been waiting for their return. Second Sunday of May is observed as Mother’s Day since 1914 as a result of continued efforts by Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist in, West Virginia, the United States, for her mother’s contributions towards the society.
It deplored that the Kashmiri mothers were bearing the brunt of Indian state terrorism as the Kashmiri women, including mothers, had taken the ultimate hit by losing their near and dear ones to Indian bullets.
The report said thousands of Kashmiri mothers continue to wait for return of their sons imprisoned or subjected to enforced disappearances in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Several Kashmiri mothers have, so far, died in their quest to find their sons disappeared in Indian troops’ custody, it added.
It lamented that the Kashmir mothers were even not allowed to mourn the deaths of their sons martyred by Indian troops and to bury them at places of their choice.
Meanwhile, several mothers, including Haseena Begum died whose son Syed Anwar Shah, a wall painter by profession, went missing on 21 July 2000, when arrested by Indian troops in Occupied Srinagar.
Mahtaba Begum, hailing from Kashmir’s far-off village Karhama, died while looking for her son who was arrested during a crackdown in 1990. Her son Mohammad Yaqub Khan was a labourer.
Misra Begum of Bemina’s boatman colony died in the desolation of her only son Shabbir Hussain Gasi who was arrested by the Indian army on 21 January 2000.
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