Humanity generally means putting aside one's selfishness and showing compassion and kindness towards one another regardless of one's gender, age, ethnicity, religion and social status. Where we see a lack of kindness and compassion between humans, we conclude it as a lack of humanity. And today we see many examples of this across the world. Rape and murder of 8-year-old minor girl Asifa in Rasana Village of Kathua District is one of the example of inhumanity.
Asifa was abducted on 10th Jan 2018, she was held captive for a week and raped before she was murdered. Her body was found on 17th Jan deep inside bushes located over a kilometre from her home near a police station. She was electrocuted to death. Her lips were bitten, there were marks of violence on her body and her legs had been broken, her genitals were mutilated.
The heinous crime has shocked every sane person in the state and invited condemnation far and wide. The case has garnered enough outrage and protest were held in many parts in her favour. But on the contrary few so called secularist are linking this simple case of humanity to religion and is being coloured the shades of communalism.
Excessive politicisation and communalisation is being done. Ultra-nationalist discourse is being used to counter the campaigns for justice and shield the culprits . Evidence are being played with, and the government remains a mute spectator. It was observed that the investigating officers dealing with the case tempered with the evidence in order to protect the two arrested Special Police Officers (SPO) Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Verma.
A Right wing group by the name of Hindu Ekta Manch has been formed after the arrests of the two Police Officers in order to save the culprits and their attempt is to communalise the entire issue as the accused belong to the majority Hindu community. Two senior BJP ministers Chandra Prakash Gupta and Lal Singh attended a rally organised by the Hindu Ekta Manch and directed the police not to make any more arrests. “What if a girl has died? Many girls have died here”, BJP minister Lal Singh has reportedly said.
Even worse. those claiming to be the persons working for women empowerment and the welfare of girl child are supporting the Hindu Ekta Manch and want to save the culprits. The government which talks about "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" is not able to find a daughter in Asifa only because she belonged to a Muslim Bakarwal family. Why their women empowerment and such schemes for girl child becomes selective when it comes to religion?
Unjustifiable delay in the investigation into the heinous rape and murder of minor girl is mortifying for the government. When Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met victim's family she assured them that govt will work for them and justice will be done to them. She also stated that a special investigation team is being constituted to probe the case. Unfortunately her statement was just to show the sympathy towards victim's family as it's being two months now and investigation is still not done.
As it is reported, investigating authorities are working in the ambit of legal procedure but the pace of work is being obstructed by the pitch of communalisation and politicisation.
There are deliberate attempts to hush up the case by building up a communal narrative around the heinous crime and it's investigation. Investigation has also revealed that the crime was perpetrated with the goal of driving out Muslim nomads from the area. As locals alleged that this is not the first time when such a brutal attack has been carried out to scare the community. Since the BJP has come to power in the state crackdowns against them are going on in Jammu, Kathua and Samba Districts.
Asifa's Rape is troubled with far reaching repercussions. It is an indictment of society that perpetrated the attack and then kept silent. As it is said, "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything."
I would like to mention that Nirbhaya's rape case led people demonstrate against the government of the day, but in Asifa's matter, public demonstrated along with the government representatives to free the rapists.
Justice is indivisible, whosoever is victim or perpetrator. So justice for Asifa is neither Hindu, Muslim nor minority and majority issue. This simple case of humanity should not be given a religious colour and justice should be delivered sooner and an exemplary punishment should be given to the culprits so that nothing as such is repeated again.
Their should be formation of stringent law which will fast track the rape related cases and the accused if proven guilty should be hanged. The way justice was meted out to the rape accused of 8-year-old Zainab in Pakistan should happen in case of India's Asifa as well.
My question is Zainab got justice will Asifa get? or will BJP shame India in International arena of justice? The scums of Hindu Ekta Manch and BJP are defending a rapist and murderer. What happened with Asifa is a grey stain on the humanity. And the people who rallied in support of the accused blacken the blot. Why is justice being slayed so mercilessly? Why the politicians are playing such tactics? Why Prime Minister who always talk about women's upliftment utter not a single word on such a heinous crime?
"Mardangi ko humne to majma banaa diya ab
Dozakh me bhi do gaz zameen ma milegi."
You made a spectacle out of your masculinity
You won't get even 2 square yards of land in hell.
"Zakhm tikhe lage,rooh chilla padi dard unko huwa, ghav humko laga
Nakhoon se taraashe jo khoon ke dhabbe hai,
Khamoosh cheekhen unme kai qaid padi hai."
[Severe were the wounds, the soul cried out, she felt the pain
we bore the scar droplets of blood that fell from nail scratches,
have trapped those silent screams.]
[Zainab Gazala Sheikh is a student of the Law School Jammu University.]
For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App
Select Langauge To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic