kunan poshpora tragedy
A forgotten tale.
Mudasir Majeed Peer
It was the night of 23th February 1991; clock hands were about to
bid adieu to 23-Feb one hour gap till 12.am of 24th Feb, when doom and
gloom had taken the shelter in Kunan Poshpora, a village about 5-kms
away from main town Kupwara. It is the village where the hapless women
folk met the extremity of beastliness during the intervening night of
23rd and 24th February. It was the night when a cold-hearted legion of
troops of the 04 Raj Raffles of 68 Brigade C/o 56 APO went berserk and
broke the windows and doors of houses of this village, entered
abysmally and allegedly tore apart the chastity of women here
irrespective of their age.
It wouldn’t be an amateurish act to call this tragedy a splotch
of shame on the face of humanity. It has perforated vast the
humanistic stance of us. As per official reports about 23 women were
raped allegedly by the troops of Rajputana Raffles. The army had laid
nocturnal siege across the length and breadth of this area. All Men
were asked to gather at a place away from their houses and all women
were asked to stay indoors. From a teenage girl to a 100 year old
woman, no one was spared. A cluster of beasts of human shape entered
the houses and raped the women mercilessly. Virgins, married, and old
women as per authentic reports washed hands off their chastity. Not
even a woman who had a baby in womb was spared.
A woman is regarded only sacred till her chastity is safe. Once
she has met the air of unsacred and illegitimate atmosphere, none is
ready to give her space in society not even the people who share pure
blood relations with her. Same story can be witnessed here in
Kunan-Poshpora. After meeting the sexual assaults the women here had
to enter into a sphere of trauma and morass. On one side they had lost
the honor and on the other side they emerged as the victims of
societal disdain. And those who catapulted them into a deluge of
miseries are roaming openly. They were given clean chit by the then
government of India that they were innocents. The allegations against
them were discarded. But let’s ask a question to government of India
that who was responsible for this mass-rape? If they are ruling
Kashmir wasn’t it their responsibility to delve deep into the case and
look for the culprits? Instead of doing so they (Indian authorities)
without any proper inquiry rejected the charges against troops and
labeled the charges against them an intelligently manufactured pack of
lies. Despite the report from the then District Magistrate S. M
Yaseen after being complained by the villagers where it was written
that “the soldiers behaved like beasts. They entered into the houses
of villagers and gang-raped women at gunpoint without any
consideration of their age, marital status and pregnancy”. Nothing was
approved and whole enquiry report was labeled as concoctions by the
Press Council of India which termed the rape allegations as baseless.
The team(PCI) finally concluded that the charges against army were
“well-concocted bundle of fabricated lies" and "a massive hoax
orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathizers and mentors in
Kashmir and abroad for re-inscribing Kashmir on the international
agenda as a human rights issue”.
Who would have believed this report; a mother whose daughter’s
clothes were torn apart and was raped continues for night? Would
she?One by one army personals raping her and she (mother) witnessed as
dumb. Or an old ailing father who was struggling for survival in bed
and his daughters were crying for help.
Different human rights organizations visited Kunan-Poshpora and
termed the rape charges against troops as truth. The world media also
covered. But result was nothing except the mounting miseries on part
of victims. On extreme pressure from public and different human rights
watches the biggest justice which was done at that time was filing of
FIR against the army. But ironically nothing occurred. The FIR emerged
as “FAILED INQUERY REPORT”.
Last month it marked the 20th anniversary of
Kunan-Poshpora mass rape case. Twenty years is big a time. Many
governments changed at center as well as state. But nothing happened
to the tragedy which befell to this village. No one remembers those
mothers and those sisters who were asked to stand in queue and were
raped. The politicians are busy in warming their own hands. No one
raises a question on behalf of that helpless village. The girls of
that village are caught between devil and deep sea. Their parents
want to marry them off to some good men. But no none one is ready to
accept them. They are living a trauma ridden life. Their marriage
proposals are turned down. They don’t get the person of their
satisfaction. Even an educated girl from that village hardly gets a
boy who isn’t what she deserves. They have become the victims of their
own conscience. A stain has been left on that village which questions
many births which came about in following two years after this
tragedy.
When a person steps into Kunan-Poshpora village, exact place
where this tragedy took place, the first thing which is heard there is
the wails from the old frail mothers, who are still haunted by the
memories of that fateful night. Their eyes are yet soaked with tears.
The big dream of parents is, if they have a daughter, then she should
get hitched to a good person. But here the parents do keep those
dreams but don’t see them turning into reality. Hardly there is any
girl in this village who braves the questions of media. It is the old
women here who with much embarrassment talk before media. The women
who were raped on that day have become the victims of many
psychosomatic disorders.
The konan Poshpora rape victims have been longing since that
tragic day for the justice to be delivered but nothing has happened
till date. For some time in the just years after this tragedy came
about this case had the momentum and people were vibrant to make the
efforts for the deliverance of justice. But with the unfolding of more
and more tragedies here in valley this case lost the momentum and now
is a faint memory in most of minds except the minds of victims. The
non-deliverance of justice in this case may be attributed more or less
to its political exploitation. Our political leaders don’t bother now
to make efforts to reopen this case as probably they are afraid of
consequence. Maybe it can cost them the chair which they are sitting
upon with the vote of those who contain a part of victims. We often
witnessed the hala bol in state assembly, lok sabha and Rajha Sabha,
on the issues of price hike, corruption, sex scandals, murders etc but
our leaders feel ashamed on debating this appalling issue. Where have
been the concealing those MLAs of this district who often used to come
on the eve of elections and used to deliver long speeches and also
used to claim themselves to be the representatives of aspirations and
miseries of people? It would have been much better had these victims
been aided in any way here by those organizations who claim to be
talking this case overseas instead of beating drum in USA and sipping
coffee in Brussels at the name of this dreadful case.
Being humans it is our primary responsibility to dedicate
ourselves towards the task of re-opening those closed files which have
gathered dust in inches for years in wait. Let’s not tolerate it
anymore. Let’s join hand to drag the criminals to the court of
justice. That time law was not strong. But now the situation is
altogether different. We have some new laws this time which will
surely aid us. Let media play a proactive role in bringing forth the
truth. We failed to get justice for shopian victims only because it
was just the only shopian people who were fighting for justice not the
entire Kashmir. A joint effort will surely result in something worth
justice. We have the best and fresh example of Egypt where union
proved fruitful. There was no particular leader to whom people were
following. The people there were the leaders. In Egypt Mubarki regime
was overthrown only because the majority of Egypt was against his rule
and majority protested against him. The result was the fall of a
mountain. Mubarki was ruling Egypt for 35 years. His position was
iron-strong. But when the entire Egypt turned against him, he had to
surrender the powers. This is the power of majority.
Union is strength. Let’s prove it. If we shut our mouths we will
be shut for ever. We have to nail the criminals otherwise we will be
forced to pay a huge cost. If we don’t fight at this juncture then we
are backing the wrong horse.
Mudasir Majeed Peer
It was the night of 23th February 1991; clock hands were about to
bid adieu to 23-Feb one hour gap till 12.am of 24th Feb, when doom and
gloom had taken the shelter in Kunan Poshpora, a village about 5-kms
away from main town Kupwara. It is the village where the hapless women
folk met the extremity of beastliness during the intervening night of
23rd and 24th February. It was the night when a cold-hearted legion of
troops of the 04 Raj Raffles of 68 Brigade C/o 56 APO went berserk and
broke the windows and doors of houses of this village, entered
abysmally and allegedly tore apart the chastity of women here
irrespective of their age.
It wouldn’t be an amateurish act to call this tragedy a splotch
of shame on the face of humanity. It has perforated vast the
humanistic stance of us. As per official reports about 23 women were
raped allegedly by the troops of Rajputana Raffles. The army had laid
nocturnal siege across the length and breadth of this area. All Men
were asked to gather at a place away from their houses and all women
were asked to stay indoors. From a teenage girl to a 100 year old
woman, no one was spared. A cluster of beasts of human shape entered
the houses and raped the women mercilessly. Virgins, married, and old
women as per authentic reports washed hands off their chastity. Not
even a woman who had a baby in womb was spared.
A woman is regarded only sacred till her chastity is safe. Once
she has met the air of unsacred and illegitimate atmosphere, none is
ready to give her space in society not even the people who share pure
blood relations with her. Same story can be witnessed here in
Kunan-Poshpora. After meeting the sexual assaults the women here had
to enter into a sphere of trauma and morass. On one side they had lost
the honor and on the other side they emerged as the victims of
societal disdain. And those who catapulted them into a deluge of
miseries are roaming openly. They were given clean chit by the then
government of India that they were innocents. The allegations against
them were discarded. But let’s ask a question to government of India
that who was responsible for this mass-rape? If they are ruling
Kashmir wasn’t it their responsibility to delve deep into the case and
look for the culprits? Instead of doing so they (Indian authorities)
without any proper inquiry rejected the charges against troops and
labeled the charges against them an intelligently manufactured pack of
lies. Despite the report from the then District Magistrate S. M
Yaseen after being complained by the villagers where it was written
that “the soldiers behaved like beasts. They entered into the houses
of villagers and gang-raped women at gunpoint without any
consideration of their age, marital status and pregnancy”. Nothing was
approved and whole enquiry report was labeled as concoctions by the
Press Council of India which termed the rape allegations as baseless.
The team(PCI) finally concluded that the charges against army were
“well-concocted bundle of fabricated lies" and "a massive hoax
orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathizers and mentors in
Kashmir and abroad for re-inscribing Kashmir on the international
agenda as a human rights issue”.
Who would have believed this report; a mother whose daughter’s
clothes were torn apart and was raped continues for night? Would
she?One by one army personals raping her and she (mother) witnessed as
dumb. Or an old ailing father who was struggling for survival in bed
and his daughters were crying for help.
Different human rights organizations visited Kunan-Poshpora and
termed the rape charges against troops as truth. The world media also
covered. But result was nothing except the mounting miseries on part
of victims. On extreme pressure from public and different human rights
watches the biggest justice which was done at that time was filing of
FIR against the army. But ironically nothing occurred. The FIR emerged
as “FAILED INQUERY REPORT”.
Last month it marked the 20th anniversary of
Kunan-Poshpora mass rape case. Twenty years is big a time. Many
governments changed at center as well as state. But nothing happened
to the tragedy which befell to this village. No one remembers those
mothers and those sisters who were asked to stand in queue and were
raped. The politicians are busy in warming their own hands. No one
raises a question on behalf of that helpless village. The girls of
that village are caught between devil and deep sea. Their parents
want to marry them off to some good men. But no none one is ready to
accept them. They are living a trauma ridden life. Their marriage
proposals are turned down. They don’t get the person of their
satisfaction. Even an educated girl from that village hardly gets a
boy who isn’t what she deserves. They have become the victims of their
own conscience. A stain has been left on that village which questions
many births which came about in following two years after this
tragedy.
When a person steps into Kunan-Poshpora village, exact place
where this tragedy took place, the first thing which is heard there is
the wails from the old frail mothers, who are still haunted by the
memories of that fateful night. Their eyes are yet soaked with tears.
The big dream of parents is, if they have a daughter, then she should
get hitched to a good person. But here the parents do keep those
dreams but don’t see them turning into reality. Hardly there is any
girl in this village who braves the questions of media. It is the old
women here who with much embarrassment talk before media. The women
who were raped on that day have become the victims of many
psychosomatic disorders.
The konan Poshpora rape victims have been longing since that
tragic day for the justice to be delivered but nothing has happened
till date. For some time in the just years after this tragedy came
about this case had the momentum and people were vibrant to make the
efforts for the deliverance of justice. But with the unfolding of more
and more tragedies here in valley this case lost the momentum and now
is a faint memory in most of minds except the minds of victims. The
non-deliverance of justice in this case may be attributed more or less
to its political exploitation. Our political leaders don’t bother now
to make efforts to reopen this case as probably they are afraid of
consequence. Maybe it can cost them the chair which they are sitting
upon with the vote of those who contain a part of victims. We often
witnessed the hala bol in state assembly, lok sabha and Rajha Sabha,
on the issues of price hike, corruption, sex scandals, murders etc but
our leaders feel ashamed on debating this appalling issue. Where have
been the concealing those MLAs of this district who often used to come
on the eve of elections and used to deliver long speeches and also
used to claim themselves to be the representatives of aspirations and
miseries of people? It would have been much better had these victims
been aided in any way here by those organizations who claim to be
talking this case overseas instead of beating drum in USA and sipping
coffee in Brussels at the name of this dreadful case.
Being humans it is our primary responsibility to dedicate
ourselves towards the task of re-opening those closed files which have
gathered dust in inches for years in wait. Let’s not tolerate it
anymore. Let’s join hand to drag the criminals to the court of
justice. That time law was not strong. But now the situation is
altogether different. We have some new laws this time which will
surely aid us. Let media play a proactive role in bringing forth the
truth. We failed to get justice for shopian victims only because it
was just the only shopian people who were fighting for justice not the
entire Kashmir. A joint effort will surely result in something worth
justice. We have the best and fresh example of Egypt where union
proved fruitful. There was no particular leader to whom people were
following. The people there were the leaders. In Egypt Mubarki regime
was overthrown only because the majority of Egypt was against his rule
and majority protested against him. The result was the fall of a
mountain. Mubarki was ruling Egypt for 35 years. His position was
iron-strong. But when the entire Egypt turned against him, he had to
surrender the powers. This is the power of majority.
Union is strength. Let’s prove it. If we shut our mouths we will
be shut for ever. We have to nail the criminals otherwise we will be
forced to pay a huge cost. If we don’t fight at this juncture then we
are backing the wrong horse.
In January 2002, after a three-day operation by the Indian Army, 25 families in Fakirpora-Drugmulla, Kupwara, had to seek alternative housing. The families were hastily told to vacate their homes due to security reasons, and three days later they found their land inaccessible due to army presence. To this day, compensation has only been sought, not granted.