By Sardar Khan Niazi
The world has been observing the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day since 1914, because of the continued efforts by Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist in West Virginia, the United States, for her mother’s contributions towards society.
What a sad news. On International Mother’s Day thousands of Kashmiri, women continued waiting for the homecoming of their sons detained in different jails by Indian troops in the Indian illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Their forced disappearance ached the hearts of their mothers.
According to media reports, the continued Indian state terrorism has resulted in the killing of 96,192 Kashmiris, including women and children since 1989. The Indian forces have widowed as many as 22,960 women and raped, disgraced, or molested 11,257 during that period.
The relatives of the detained Kashmiris including mothers, wives, and daughters of illegally detained APHC leaders, activists, Ulema, journalists, human rights defenders, and youth have been expressing serious concern over the health of their dear ones languishing in different jails of India and IIOJK.
It is really deploring that over two dozen women, including 63-year-old resistance leader, Aasiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen Fehmeeda Sofi, Shazia Akhter, and Insha Tariq are illegally facing detention in different jails, including India’s infamous Tihar jail, on false charges.
Regrettably, the brutal Indian troops have subjected about eight thousand Kashmiris to custodial disappearance during the period and the mothers of the majority of these disappeared people are worried about their future fate.
For a long, Kashmiri mothers have been enduring most of the Indian state terrorism. They have suffered the most by losing their near and dear ones to Indian bullets. Several Kashmiri mothers have died so far waiting impatiently for their dear ones with the desire to see their missing sons once again in their lifetime.
Mothers who have passed away include Haseena Begum whose son Syed Anwar Shah, a wall painter by profession, went missing on 21 July 2000, when arrested by Indian troops in Srinagar. Mahtaba Begum, from village Karhama, died while waiting for her son, Mohammad Yaqub Khan a laborer, arrested during a crackdown in 1990.
Misra Begum of Bemina’s boatman colony died waiting for her only son Shabbir Hussain Gasi arrested by the Indian army on 21 January 2000. Hameeda Parveen died in 2012 waiting for her son, Abid Hussain, a student.
Zoona Begum from Raj Bagh died in 2011 waiting for her son Imtiyaz Ahmad, a forester. He disappeared in May 1996 when Indian forces raided his house.
Haleema Begum, from Batamaloo area, died in February 2020 after waiting for her son, Basharat Ahmad Shah, an Aligarh Muslim University student, for two and a half decades, arrested on 7 January 1990 by Indian paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force personnel from Sopore area.
The lamentable part of the story is that the Modi government did not allow the Kashmir mothers to mourn the deaths of their sons martyred by Indian troops and to bury them at places of their choice.
For decades, India has been suppressing the sentiments of freedom in Kashmir. The fallacious statement made by Jaishankar, the Indian Minister of External Affairs during the SCO meeting in Goa on May 5, 2023, that Jammu-Kashmir was, is, and will always be India’s integral part is baseless.
Jaishankar’s assertion makes a mockery of the United Nations Charter and International Law. Jaishankar knows well that his erroneous statement regarding Kashmir violates the United Nations Security Council resolutions, agreed upon by both India and Pakistan.
When the United Nations and world bodies working for women’s rights will take note of the sufferings of the Kashmiri mothers of the Indian illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
