Kashmir women ordered to cover up or risk acid attack

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

A pro-al-Qaeda group in Kashmir has warned women it will kill them or disfigure their faces with acid if they are seen unveiled or using their mobile phones in public.

The threat has sown fear throughout India’s Jammu and Kashmir state where it revives memories of a similar campaign in 2001 when several women were attacked with acid. The warning comes amid growing concern in India about the number of acid attacks on women and fears in Kashmir that the practice, which is prevalent in neighbouring Pakistan, is being exported across the border. In both India and neighbouring Muslim countries it has been used in assaults against women who have refused marriage proposals or been accused of slighting the ‘honour’ of relatives or rejected suitors. Police and women’s groups in Kashmir were alarmed after notices were pinned to mosques in Shopian district, claiming to be posted on behalf of two previously unknown militant groups. “We appeal to the public that they ensure that their women observe purdah [cover their heads and faces] in public places. If we spot any woman without purdah we will sprinkle acid on her face. If we spot any girl using mobile phone, she will be shot dead,” said the note, which was signed by al-Qaeda Mujahideen and referred to another group, Lashkar e al-Qaeda.Another group, the Lashkar e Jabbar claimed responsibility for acid attacks and shootings of girls in 2001 as part of a campaign to enforce conservative Muslim values in the relatively liberal state and terrify young women it regarded as wearing “immodest” clothes, such as jeans and t-shirts. Professor Noor Ahmad Baba, a Kashmiri commentator, said women in Kashmir had been targeted before but had generally enjoyed greater freedom than women in other Muslim states. “In the last 23 years of the war, women have been targeted by fringe elements,” he said. “Generally, women in Kashmir are more empowered than women from other conflict zones. There have been campaigns to force women to wear veil but it didn’t sustain for long.” S M Sahai, Kashmir’s Inspector General of Police, said an investigation was under way and said it may be a part of a campaign by local militants to radicalise the state because militant infiltration into Kashmir from Pakistan has been substantially reduced. “The militants are trying to recruit locals as the infiltration has been brought to minimum. We have cases of militants trying to engaging boys of 12,” he said.