Islamabad - General Secretary Network for Human Rights and Justice Lubna Azad has condemned the brutal rape-murder case of 8-year-old Asifa in Kathua and urged the international community to take notice of the heinous and gruesome incident in occupied Kashmir.

She asked the international community to help bring the perpetrators to justice so they could be held accountable for the murder of this young girl. The girl was abducted, drugged and gang-raped inside the Hindu temple and eventually murdered on January 17 by a gang of Hindu Special Police Officers (SPOs) of Indian police and a former bureaucrat in a temple in Hiranagar area of Kathua district in January.

Lubna, in a statement issued here Thursday, said that the International community and global Human Rights organisations cannot shut their eyes to the plight of women in Kashmir, as Indian Occupation forces use rape as a tool to suppress the ongoing freedom movement in Occupied Kashmir. She said that womenfolk live under tremendous stress, uncertainty, and insecurity in the occupied area. “The endless turbulences, including the rape have changed the entire life pattern of the residents of Kashmir. The entire concept of childhood has undergone a radical change because of the fear of being abducted,” she said.

She thanked the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, for demanding punishment to the tormentors of Asifa. The UN Chief had stated: “We hope that the authorities will bring the perpetrators to justice so they can be held accountable for the murder of this young girl.” NHRJ General Secretary told the UN Secretary General that the people of Kashmir look up to the UN body, where resolution of this issue is pending since long. “UN should come forward and help Kashmiris to resolve this long pending issue in accordance with the aspiration of the people of Kashmir,” she added.