It is a horrific reality that women have been the most vulnerable sufferers of wars, rebellions and mutinies. They have been taken as articles of war booty, raped, tortured to death, sold or traded like animals. Those who were killed or chose to plunged into rivers, wells or hanged themselves with tree got free of perpetual mental trauma; those who were spared to live continue to live with deep scars of agony and disgrace. In many cases, women were stripped off of their righteousness, even in front of their own family members—including their children —received even deeper scars which remained unhealed throughout their lives.
Reflecting back at gory events, in the aftermath of partition in 1947, one experiences chill travelling down the spine. Vigilante groups armed with axes, clubs and short guns, thronged the streets, hunting helpless women, tearing apart their clothes, satiating their beasty lust, ripping their private parts(amid their helpless pleadings,wails and sobs) and silencing them— forever ,or leaving them to wriggle to unnatural deaths. Those women who possessed exceptional physical charm were distributed among the wild gangsters; some were taken as objects to be sold later in different areas at exaggerated amounts.
Those unsettling incidents were not carried out by particular tribes or particular areas only. In fact during those troubled times, many hooligans, blinded by maddening drive to take revenge rushed to hunt down all women—they found easy to prey on. Putting aside all religious, cultural, moral and family codes or values, those hordes of armed men, unleashed heartless schemes. Amid chaos, thousands and thousands of women were lifted by Sikh and Hindu armed groups and later forcibly married with them. Subsequently, many Muslim women (who remained Muslims inside) gave birth to Sikh or Hindu sons and daughters.
Hundreds of such criminalities were committed by Dogra Army in Kashmir. Recounting such gory acts, Lt. Raja Muzaffar Khan Shaheed Sj&bar, a veteran solider, who fought against Dogra, wrote in his diary that at Jehngarh, near Naushehra, the mujahedeen, found sixteen dead bodies of young Muslim girls who were seized by Dogra troops. The troops made them grind floor and gang raped them later. After that, they slew those ill-fated, unknown girls and threw their dead bodies in a nullah.
When such news reached Mirpur, panic spread amongst Hindu community which was all set to leave for India. Their fright increased when armed tribal men set Mirpur city ablaze. During that insecurity and turmoil, fearing their life and honor, many Hindu women jumped into wells, much to agonizing to Muslim community as well. In those troubled times, to protect and facilitate Hindu families, a refugee camp was established at Jagguhead, in Jaatlan —which was a border between Kashmir and Pakistan. So any mass murder of rape of Hindu women was averted, thanks to timely efforts and action of Major Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, an erstwhile officer of state army, who revolted against Dogra army and fought against it.
The sad saga of women plight did not end there. During the same era, many tribal men captured hundreds and hundreds of young girls and sold them in Landi Kotal and Afghanistan—to be treated as herds. Countless such known women, now grandmothers, still (dimly) recall the areas they were lifted from and reminisce their families— which have lost any hope of seeing them ever again in their lives. Perhaps their families also have forgotten, consoling themselves that their daughters are no more in this world.
In 1971, thousands and thousands of ladies of West Pakistan and Bengalis loyal to Pakistan were stripped naked in front of their family members, raped, maimed or killed amid cheers and roars of Mukhti Bahini. There are hundreds and hundreds of such untold miseries lying buried in graveyards of Dhaka, Chittagong, Santahar and other cities. Indian academic Sharmila Bose and Masood Mufti, secretory education, unmasked these unnerving anguishes inflicted upon women all in the name of Bengali nationalism and liberation.
Masood Mufti in his book: Lamhae, documented a gruesome incident that occurred in Memonsigh Mahalla, in which hundreds of family members were assembled and butchered in front of their female members, by East Pakistan Rifles and Mukhti Bahini. After that their woe beaten women, traumatized (mothers, daughters and sisters) were compelled to dig graves for slain relatives in chilling cold. The sad saga did not end there. After the burials, those mourning and sobbing ladies, were made to stand in front of jail. Following it, wild prisoners were let loose to prey on those totally helpless women—to hunt down their only treasure—righteousness and chastity. In the end, those half dead women were shot all together.
Such brutalities of targeting the women were used by Indian army after armed resistance started in the valley in late 80s. The Indian army used rape as a weapon to intimidate, humiliate and torture freedom fighters and their families .One gloomy night of February 23, 1991, almost 300 personnel of the Indian army raided two Kashmiri village: Kunan and Posphora in district Kupwara. After that they gang raped as many as 150 girls and women, in many cases in front of their male members who were tied in front of them inside their rooms and courtyards. The Indian troops still use molestation as a weapon to deter male family members, whom the Indian troops suspect to support or shelter freedom fighters. Scores of such monstrous crimes go unreported, unpublished.
In early eighties, when Russians invaded Afghanistan, the Russian forces air lifted scores of women from Jalalabad, stripped them off and unfurled their colorful trousers and shirts to torture and disgrace the Afghans. Later, those stark-naked women were hurled out of the planes only to be reduced to packs of flesh and bones to the ground. Those (lost) daughters and their plight never were gleaned into any political or media discourse. No NGO or feminists organizations lit candles mourn them, no anchor aired any program to decry that heinous crime.
The writer can be reached at sliklight55@gmail.com