People's Democracy

Women Condemn Terrorist Groups

  CONVENED by the All India Democratic Women’s Association, women’s organisations held a joint meeting at the Deputy Chairman’s Hall, Constitution Club, on May 20 to protest the barbaric terrorist attack in Kaluchak, Jammu. They also condoled the death of innocent people, many of them women and children, in this attack.

  The meeting was presided over by AIDWA president Subhashini Ali and attended by many activists and leaders of the AIDWA’s Delhi state unit. Sehba Farooqui (general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women), Syeda Hamida (convenor, Muslim Women’s Forum), Sadhana Ganguli (president, YWCA) and Husna Sobhani (Joint Women’s Programme) represented their organisations.

  Through a resolution moved by Ashalata, general secretary of Delhi state AIDWA, the meeting condoled the death of those killed in the said attack. The resolution said, “The terrorists deliberately gunned down children and women, not even sparing a three months old baby. Bus passengers travelling from Himachal Pradesh were also shot in cold blood.”

  It said the inhuman massacre exposed the utter hypocrisy of the claims the terrorists groups make about being concerned for the Kashmiri people’s human rights. “Such savagery violates the tenets of all religions and can have no place in any civilised society,” it added.  

  The meeting asked the government to strengthen security, protect the people’s lives in Jammu & Kashmir from terrorist attacks, and step up the work of intelligence agencies. While the government has the people’s support for the measures it takes to protect the Indian citizens, the meeting cautioned the government against the jingoistic, so-called solutions being suggested by some quarters. It also asked the government to firmly ensure that communal forces were not able to use the outrage to cause disharmony among Indian citizens.

  The meeting ended with the resolve to fight against all kinds of terrorism, fundamentalism and communalism by strengthening the women’s unity and forging the struggle to save the secular and democratic fabric of India.