People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Vol. XXVI

No. 51

December 29,2002


AIDWA Condemns Kashmir Killings

 THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) strongly condemned the brutal killing of women and children by the terrorists in Hasiyot district Rajori in Jammu and Kashmir.  The deliberate targeting by the militants of three vulnerable girls (Noureen Kausar, Tahir Parveen and Shehnaz Akhtar) show the inhuman and ruthless lengths that the militant can go, to spread terror and compel the people of Jammu and Kashmir to follow their diktat.

"The recent killing of women and children in J&K are also an attempt to derail the functioning of the recently democratically elected government. While the police/administration and certain sections of the press have attributed different motives to the killing, none of these can justify such an inhuman and abhorrent attack", it said in a statement issued on December 23.

AIDWA also condemned the reported coercive methods adopted by certain militant groups to force women to wear the burkha. In the past also AIDWA had always opposed the imposition of a dress code on women in J&K and elsewhere by fundamentalist groups of any community. "This imposition of the dress code, apart from in most instances being anti-women and impacting on her freedom to move and participate in civil society on equal terms, is also an infringement of the basic right of any citizens or women to decide what to wear", stated AIDWA.

It appealed to all sections of society to come together to condemn the brutal killings of women and children by the militants and to resist this and the imposition of any dress code on women.