ISLAMABAD: Mushaal Hussein Mullick, wife of unlawfully incarcerated Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, has expressed her deep concern over the international community’s silence on the atrocities committed by Indian Occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), saying the region had been turned into a graveyard for children.

Chairperson of the Peace and Culture Organisation Mushaal strongly condemned the atrocities committed by Indian forces in the occupied valley, drawing parallels with the Zionist forces’ brutal actions against children in Gaza. She emphasised that both regions have become graveyards for children.

She made these remarks while speaking as a Chief Guest at the Human Rights Photo Exhibition organised by the Human Rights Council of Pakistan here Monday. She said that the fascist forces unleashed a wave of terrorism and committed war crimes in the occupied valley, as they converted the region into a slaughter house and killing field.

She highlighted that the top Hurriyat leaders, including her husband Yasin Malik, were kept in unlawful incarceration by implicating in absurd, concocted and fabricated cases. However, Mushaal rued that ironically the so-called human rights organisations and world powers observed criminal silence in this regard largely because of the economic and financial interests.

She urged the international community to take immediate action to stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and Kashmiris, particularly children, who have borne the brunt of these conflicts.

The chairperson revealed the shocking truth about the fascist occupation troopers’ brutality in the scenic valley, where over 900 children have been martyred over the past 36 years, adding that more disturbing was the deafening silence from human rights and child rights organisations, who failed to speak out against these atrocities.

The hurriyat leader expressed utter shock and dismay at the lack of response from these organisations, emphasising that the children’s deaths were a result of the notorious regime’s policy of ethnic cleansing of Kashmiris.

Mushaal highlighted the disturbing reality of Indian forces’ brutality in Kashmir, where children, women, and youth were deliberately targeted. Since 1989, 2,353 women have been killed, 11,265 molested, and 22,980 widowed due to Indian state terrorism.

The chairperson noted that, historically, women and children have been recognised as non-combatants, deserving protection in conflicts. However, she lamented that this principle has been grossly violated in Kashmir and Palestine, where women and children have become disproportionately vulnerable to violence, displacement, and egregious human rights abuses.

Mushaal urged the UN and global powers to hold India accountable and take concrete steps to resolve the Kashmir dispute, ending the suffering of Kashmiris once and for all.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2024