Rape and sexual violence continue to be perpetrated against Kashmiri civilians. This is most clearly demonstrated by the 2018 rape and murder of Asifa Bano. Asifa was just an 8-year-old girl with a loving family. Her only crime was being the daughter of a Muslim Gujjar family. She was gang-raped, tortured, murdered in a temple, and dumped in a forest.
Eight men perpetrated this horrific act of violence. Four were officers in the police force and one was a retired government official. Their motivations could not have been clearer – they wished to terrorize the Gujjar family. Shockingly, the Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party attempted to rally support for Asifa’s murderers.
The use of rape and violence as a weapon of terror is a crime against humanity and those who are guilty of it should be punished severely.