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Kashmir militants ask women to shun 'unIslamic' dresses

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Frontline Lashkar-e-Toiba has banned 'unIslamic' dresses and warned Kashmiri women defying the order of serious consequences.

"Our boys will target any woman wearing skin-tight clothes with acid, hand-grenades and pistols,'' the militant organisation has warned.

Lashkar-e-Toiba chief commander Abu Talha Hazari said in a statement that the organisation has asked its activists to 'punish women wearing Western dresses'.

The organisation has given women a week's time to discard such dresses.

The ban comes close on the heels of the recent attack in Srinagar on two girls for wearing jeans. The girls had to be hospitalised after suffering bullet injuries. The attacks triggered panic in Srinagar.

In 1990, Aasia Andrabi launched a campaign in Kashmir, forcing women to wear burqa. However, effective police intervention ended the campaign bringing a whiff of relief for women.

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