Thursday, April 19, 2018

The new cartography of terror.

SreeNair | 7:21 AM | |

M
aai,/I sent the horses trotting,/And they found their way back home./But, I couldn't.
My legs that you thought were/Swift as those of a deer,/They froze./Maai, they froze./But I sent the horses home./The purple flowers,
The yellow butterflies,/They stood there helpless./While I sent the horses back home.
Maai,/Tell Baba that I know,/I know,/I know he tried./I heard him say out my name,/I heard him repeat it loud./But,/I was sleepy Maai,/I was tired./Them monsters,/They hurt me bad.
Strange as it may seem to you,/Maai,/It feels like your warmth now.

The #JusticeForAsifa message on my whatsApp wall reads thus.

We have failed an eight year old and the whole humanity too!!

The brutal rape and savagery of an-eight-year-old ,perhaps even more diabolical than Nirbhaya, in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir ,over 1000 km from Unnao, have boiled up a nation-wide outrage. A Bakherwal nomadic Muslim tribal girl went missing on January 10 from their camp in Rasana village in Kathua, 60 Km from Jammu where she stayed with her family. She was abducted while grazing horses in the forest and was sedated over and over before being ravished by six men, inside and outside a Devasthan(Not to be confused with a Temple, Devstan is -“kul aka clan-deities abode“ where only the families to whom it belong, perform the ritual). She was tortured to death on January 14- the body to be recovered from Rasana forest in Hira Nagar on January 17, a week after she went missing. On January 23, A week later,on January 23 ,After the body was found, and the J&K government handed over the case to the SIT of the Crime Branch.

Three months passed. On April 9, the Crime Branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which took over the investigation, filed a charge sheet in court.
The rape was committed on purpose to bully the Bakherwal community in to decamping the suburb for which the 8-year- old girl has became essentially the ‘soft target. Bakerwals are one of 12 scheduled tribes in J&K with a population of just over 60,000-Muslims by belief. They are nomadic herdsmen, a floating population with seasonal earnings on their live stocks. They drift to the Valley and Ladakh in summer and shifts back to the forests of Jammu in winter. Walking over four months a year in search of grazing grounds, they stay afloat, pitch tents where they find fit to stay.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday said the Kathua gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua earlier this year was shameful. “After 70 years of independence, such an incident occurring in any part of the country is shameful,” he said during his visit to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Trust University in Jammu today.

True to his characteristic silence amidst furious tweets on irrelevant events, on Friday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of BabaSaheb Ambedkar memorial,New Delhi ,condemned the Kathua and unnao incidents and declared; “I want to assure the nation that no culprits will be spared, complete justice will be done. Our daughters will definitely get justice”. Close to its heals ,the two J&K ministers under cloud got the sack for taking part in the rally in support of Kathua rape accused,averting a coalition crisis.

Later at an official visit to the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 18 April, he addressed the 'Bharat ki Baat, Sabke Saath' programme at the iconic Central Hall Westminster in London and referred to the Kathua and said there should be no politics over rape. ” A rape is a rape. How can we tolerate this exploitation of our daughters? “

Kathua incident is a crime against humanity: Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Earlier, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in an interview to a news channel, had stated that the culprits in both Kathua and Unnao would be punished and justice done to the victims. Mehbooba Mufti took to Twitter earlier and assured that her government will ensure that no other child will ever face such brutality and atrocity. Terming as "horrific" the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, UN chief Antonio Guterres expressed hope that the authorities will bring perpetrators of the brutal crime to justice.

Seven persons accused in the case have been charged with crimes under Sections 302, 376, 201 and 120-B of the Penal Code.

The JK Police’s crime branch in its 18 page charge sheet has accused Sanji Ram, a former revenue official and caretaker of the Devasthan in Hiranagar where the victim was allegedly confined, He is the prime accused, the conspirator and mastermind of the abduction, rape and murder of the little girl. The charge sheet says that it was Sanji Ram, who delegated the juvenile nephew, his son Vishal and their acquaintant Parvesh with kidnapping the-8-year-old. Two special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Kumar were also involved in the crime. Two other police officials, Head Constable Tilak Raj and Sub Inspector Anand Dutta were bribed to give a leg up in the crime. Separate charge sheet was filed on Tuesday on the role of the juvenile, who cannot be publicly named according to the law. Ram surrendered on March 20 after his son was arrested from Uttar Pradesh a day earlier.

On January 11, six days before the child's body was recovered , the juvenile phoned his cousin Jangotra and asked him to return from Meerut where he was studying if he wanted to "gratify his lust", the charge sheet stated. According to the investigation, Khajuria the SPO also reached the culvert near the forest where she was taken to eliminate, told them to wait as "he wanted to rape her before she is killed". The charge sheet said the girl was once again gang-raped and later killed by the juvenile.

All eight are under arrest.

The Jammu High Court Bar Association called for a bandh on Wednesday demanding that the investigation be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Khatua bar-chief Kirthi Bhushan Mahajan said that duress and undue force was used on the local population in Rasana and all these suspicions and doubts could be cleared by a CBI enquiry.

According to Shoeb Alam, standing counsel for J&K, “The police team was heckled by the lawyers and prevented from submitting the charge sheet before the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Kathua.” The 3 member bench of SC headed by the Chief Justice Dipak Misra took cognizance of the developments and said that impeding the process of law “affects the delivery of justice”

Hindu Ekta Manch a platform set up, a week before the body was found in the forest, by affiliates of the Sangh Parivar under the leadership of BJP state secretary Vijay Kumar , has been consistent in support of the arrested policeman, demanding transfer of the case to the CBI. The main accused Sanjhi Ram is the founding member of Hindu Ekta Manch. Addressing the Manch-led protest gathering, state Industries and Commerce Minister Chander Parkash Ganga hit out at the police for the arrest .“ We will not allow this jungle raj, under which people are picked up at will. Forest Minister Lal Singh questioned why the probe was not being handed over to the CBI. The protests demanding SanjiRam’s release evoked a sharp reaction from chief minister Mehbooba Muft who tweeted; ” Appalled by the marches & protests in defence of the recently apprehended rapist in Kathua. Also horrified by their use of our national flag in these demonstrations, this is nothing short of desecration.” The Bharatiya Janata Party leader Chander Prakash Ganga, who was seen at a rally organised in support of the accused claimed that he was asked to attend the event by the state party chief Sat Sharma, a report said.

All over the world, nomadic communities have always been feared, discredited and abused by communities who live in settled habitats.The purported motive behind the assault –that to shy away the nomads from their neighbourhood does not hold water as they had never been a perceived threat to the social fabric of the region. Vrinda Karat rightly asks;”Whereas in every other case the Sangh Parivar has been campaigning for the abolition of Article 370, in the case of the Bakherwal and Gujjar communities the Sangh Parivar has taken shelter under Article 370 to deprive these communities of their rights on forest land under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006. Thus whereas under the FRA the rights of the Bakherwals on forest land would have to be recognised, Article 370 prevents its automatic applicability in Jammu and Kashmir”

The BJP rabble rousers in the ministry have communalised the barbarity beyond norms for political point-scoring. It took 4 months for the grisly murder to become public, the delay smelt of the shenanigans of the political genie and media remiss. India has a dubious notoriety as a nation where rapists are shielded and feasted by the institution while the victims are named, shamed and shattered.

If a Hindu girl is raped in Bengal liberals are left with a frog in their throat, when it happens to a Muslim girl in UP secularists do a hatchet job to paint the saffron black. The fumbling of Kathua horror by the BJP is helping radicals in Kashmir to whip up anti-India sentiments. By bringing a Pakistani-shade for the rape the BJP leaders have unwittingly made a mockery of themselves, betraying their knavishness and folly. The political discourse brought on the dissection table is being dictated and vitiated by cancerous, communal and cast cliques to score political points.

The Kathua can be a litmus test for India’s democratic justice delivery credos. Child rapes are as regular as clockwork and can happen at predictable intervals at any nook and cranny of the country. Kathua case begs to be taken to its logical conclusion. The child victim must get justice. Otherwise we would have failed her and the nation. Malefic machismo has engulfed the nation.

Her adopted father had lost two children in a bus accident around the time she was born. He cried and begged his sister to give him the little girl. He said raising her would take some of the grief away. After a year, the sister relented and gave her youngest child to her brother. They lived together for the six months spent in Kargil. During the winter, the two families moved in different directions , one to Samba and other to Kathua. The biological mother’s eyes well up as she returns to where the horses were grazing. “My little girl liked horses” ,she reminisced.

The police never bothered them, nor did the people in the towns and villages they passed through. Their only fear was wild animals but now they have to fear people also.” I could have found some peace had an animal attacked her, but how can human beings be that cruel to do what they did to her?” she laments.
The grief-stricken family of, quietly packed their haversacks, saddled their horses and have set off on their annual journey to the pasture lands deep in the hills of the state, with the hope that justice will be done in the case. It’s an annual ritual, this trek with grazing livestock ,through various districts in Jammu province to Kashmir and Ladakh. They do it every summer. They have not abandoned the hamlet.

The whatsApp message ends with heart-wrenching swansong;

It doesn't hurt anymore./The blood has dried/And it looks like the purple blossoms/That swayed with me in the meadows./It doesn't hurt, Maai.
Maai,/The monsters are still out there./And there are stories too./Don't listen to them Maai,
Gut wrenching and agonizing they are/And a lot you've gone through./Maai,/Lest I forget,/There's a temple there/Where lives a goddess.
Thank her,/For I think it's she who helped,/The horses find their way back home.

Soon apples will be in season, she loved apples.

“It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style. They affect us just as vulgarity affects us. They give us an impression of sheer brute force, and we revolt against that.
Sometimes, however, a tragedy that possesses artistic elements of beauty crosses our lives. If these elements of beauty are real, the whole thing simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect. Suddenly we find that we are no longer the actors, but the spectators of the play. Or rather we are both. We watch ourselves, and the mere wonder of the spectacle enthralls us.”

― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray



Updates

  • Raipur:Seven-year-old girl sexually assaulted in school
    By ANI | Published: 21st April 2018 08:56 AM | Last Updated: 21st April 2018 08:56 AM | A+A A- |

    With the ongoing Unnao and Kathua rape cases, the Indian social media has been abuzz with the words - "rape horror".. Massive protests are being held across the country for demanding death penalty for those accused of raping minors.

    RAIPUR:

    In yet another case of crime against minors, a seven-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted at Raipur's Campion School. Meanwhile, the police said that they were investigating the matter and were examining CCTV footages of the school. An FIR was lodged for the same.

    The president of Child Right Commission, Prabha Dubey, told ANI, "I have spoken to the girl personally. She is saying that a 'bhaiya' had allegedly molested her. We asked the peon of the school about the undergarment, to which she replied that she had thrown away the undergarment since the girl had urinated on it. I will constitute a team to investigate the matter."

  • Bihar:13-year-old girl kills self after father rapes her
    By PTI | Published: 21st April 2018 01:57 AM | Last Updated: 21st April 2018 01:57 AM | A+A A- |

    BETTIAH:

    A 30-year-old man was arrested today for allegedly raping his 13-year-old daughter following which she committed suicide in Bihar's West Champaran district, an official said. The girl's body was found yesterday hanging from the ceiling at her house in a village which comes under the jurisdiction of Majhaulia police station, Superintendent of Police Jayant Kant said.

    Police sources said an FIR was lodged on the basis of the statement of the mother of the girl. A panchayat meeting was held at the request of the girl and her mother on her sexual exploitation around a week ago, and her father was rebuked at the meeting, the sources said. After the meeting, the girl was mentally disturbed and she ran away from the village on Wednesday. She was brought back by family members but after a few days she committed suicide, the sources said.

  • 3-year-old girl raped allegedly by neighbour in Madhya Pradesh
    By ANI | Published: 26th April 2018 11:36 AM | Last Updated: 26th April 2018 11:36 AM | A+A A- |

    CHHATARPUR;

    A 3-year-old girl was allegedly raped on Wednesday night in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur district. The incident took place when the accused neighbour allegedly sneaked into the girl's house and found the victim alone in her house. The accused was arrested immediately after the incident.
    "We have registered the case and the accused has been arrested. Further investigation underway," said Superintendent of Police (SP), RR Parihar. The girl was admitted to the district hospital at Chhatarpur where she is undergoing treatment. (ANI)

 

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