ABSTRACT
Taking gendered vulnerabilities into account Kashmir is seen to illustrate, in no uncertain terms, how insecurities are often shaped by inter-state relations while also demonstrating how state violence intensifies precarity, violence and gendered insecurities in conflict zones. Kashmir, the ‘unfinished business of partition between India and Pakistan’ is a veritable inferno and has been so since at least 1989. India's recourse to repression was partly an effort to maintain its national unity owing to the fact that it considers Kashmir ‘integral’ to its nationhood. There have also been cases where men were picked up in crackdowns but the army simply denied having taken them into custody when faced with anxious questioning from wives of the disappeared men. Security forces are allowed to function with impunity in Jammu and Kashmir despite having been known to perpetrate large-scale human rights violations and severely hinder the mobility and freedom of those fighting for justice.
