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Srinagar, August 10, 2014 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, a local court in Kupwara has dismissed the Indian Army’s revision petition seeking an end to the fresh investigation ordered into the mass rape in Kunan and Poshpora villages of Kupwara district in 1991.
The Sessions Court while dismissing the petition as having no merit held that “crime never dies and that a delay in investigations does not debar the investigating agency from unravelling the truth,” said counsel for victims, Parvez Imroz. Counsel for the Army, Karnail Singh, also confirmed that the Court dismissed the Army’s revision petition.
Indian troops belonging to the 4th Rajputana Rifles ordered all the male members of the hamlet to come out of their homes for identification and interrogation during the fateful night intervening 23rd and 24th of February, 1991 while asking the female members to stay indoors. During the operation, the women were indiscriminately, systematically assaulted and gang-raped. The victims included women as old as 81 years.
A statement issued by JK Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), which is pursuing the case, said the Court held that Army petition had been filed only on the basis of “assumptions and apprehensions and that prospective accused had no right to be heard and should only cooperate with investigations.
Besides, JKCCS, Kunan-Poshpora Village Committee, Support Group for Justice for Kunan-Poshpora are also fighting the cases on behalf of the victims.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Phone: 92-51-4435548, 4435549
Fax: 92-51-4861736