Protests against the rape of a Muslim Gujjar girl gain two strands. One is to 바카라evict all nomads바카라 from Jammu.
It was early afternoon when a seven-year-old girl had come back home from the nearby forests along with two horses of the family. Impatience grew in the chirpy girl, eager to play with children of Rasana from where she had just returned. After a quick lunch, she rushed towards the cluster of houses in that village. Her mother paid no attention바카라for, that was 바카라routine바카라 outing.
But then, the girl didn바카라t return late into that evening. By 5.30 pm, her mother got a little worried. She got out of her two-room house, walked down a cleared stretch of the rugged forest and began inquiring about her daughter. All were clueless about the girl. Finally, one woman informed her that she had seen the girl, distinctly fair and brown-eyed, play with other children near her house.
Her mother started panicking and alerted her husband and other relatives. The entire team of tribal Gujjars joined in their search for the girl deep into midnight. Subsequently, they filed a police report. Easy-going as usual, two special police officers (SPOs) began a leisurely search for the girl, along with her family. The prime suspect, as it turned out dramatically, was one of the cops who was put in charge of the initial search along that belt of Kathua district of Jammu, which continued for next seven days. That was SPO Deepak Khajuria, 28.
In hindsight, the girl's family notes that Khajuria behaved particularly strangely with the family. 바카라Every patch of the jungle was searched, except the houses and cowsheds of this small Rasana hamlet,바카라 says the uncle of the girl.
On January 17, a shepherd rushed towards her family to break some news. As he reached the house, the Hindu youngster could not muster the courage to say anything. He ran back and made a telephone call to her father, informing that her body was lying in the bushes of the forest, barely half a km from their lowly house and 200 meters from that of a minor who was first arrested in the case. The spot, the family was to soon realise, was one where they, along with the police and a few residents of Rasana, had passed through several times in the recent past in the peak of this winter.
바카라Her body was bruised. She had bite-marks on her lips, while the nails of her hand had turned black,바카라 the mother narrates. 바카라Her bones of the arm and thigh seemed to have been cracked.바카라 The woman who performed the final ritual bath to her confirmed that her genitals had been brutally mutilated.
After post-mortem, when her body was brought to a nearby village, a group of youths disallowed her burial in the graveyard owned by her family and relatives. They belonged to the Hindu right-wing바카라and threatened of communal clashes if she was buried there, according to the local All Tribal Coordination Committee (ATCC). 바카라They came up with tridents, didn바카라t allow the family to bury her in the graveyard,바카라 says Nazakat Khatana, vice-chairman of the body.
The girl was later buried eight km away, in another village. 바카라Not allowing to bury her in the ancestral graveyard conveyed the message that the tribal바카라s Gujjars have no rights in the village or on their own land,바카라 says Khatana. 바카라They actually want to drive all the nomads away from Hiranagar-Kathua belt.바카라
Most of the print and electronic media in Jammu remained silent on the issue. At the J&K assembly that was on, some Opposition legislators flagged the matter. That was when the police swung into action and arrested a minor who lived in Rasana at his uncle바카라s house. The BJP legislator from Hiragana and fellow MLAs from the party (in the ruling coalition) remained silent. At this, tribal activist-lawyer Talib Hussain, who is ATCC chairman, upped the protest. He was arrested and released after two days. The police threatened to slap a case under the Public Safety Act, but Talib was released after Gujjars expressed anger over his arrest.
Public outcry grew louder, forcing the government to shift the case to the Crime Branch (CB), which is now investigating the case. Its sleuths arrested Khajuria, who is believed to be directly involved in the abduction, rape and murder of the girl. According to police sources, he told investigators that his idea was to instil fear among the nomadic Bakerwals and prompt them to leave the place (even as the community has always been pro-India). The CB later arrested another SPO, Surinder Kumar, of Satoora Kathua. According to CB sources, the accused had held the girl captive for a whole week before murdering her.
Amid these, on February 14, a group of right-wingers, believed to be affiliated to the BJP, took out a march. That rally by the Hindu Ekta Manch also saw the participation of a few Congress leaders. Some, carrying the tricolour, sought the release of Khajuria. The news shocked the chief minister. In a tweet, Mehbooba Mufti said she was 바카라horrified바카라 also 바카라by their use of our national flag in these demonstrations, this is nothing short of desecration.바카라 The accused has been arrested and the law will follow its course, she added. A day later, she refused to meet the Manch activists.
Their leader, Vijay Sharma, who is also state committee member of the BJP, avers that the rally was for peace. 바카라It was not to support any criminal; we want justice for the girl,바카라 he tells Outlook. 바카라All we want is that no innocent should be booked in the case and the CBI should inquire it.바카라 The demand found endorsement from the BJP바카라s Jitendra Singh, minister for state in the PMO. He terms the CM바카라s remarks against the Manch as 바카라judgemental바카라 when 바카라we have courts to decide about someone바카라s crime.바카라 If the state government recommends a CBI probe, the Centre will act on it, adds the MP from the Kathua-Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat.
But the minor바카라s rape and murder is not a communal issue, argues Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, J&K minister for consumer affairs. 바카라The Crime Branch probing it means the case will go to the court,바카라 he tells Outlook. 바카라The court will see the merits of investigation.바카라
The Manch is in no mood to give up. On February 22, it accused the state바카라s mainstream parties of being pro-jehad. In an attacking statement, it noted that 바카라land and forests have already been handed over to people belonging to one community so that demographic character of Jammu is changed fast and jehad succeeds in Jammu as well.바카라
Lawyer Ankur Sharma speaks of a public feeling that Jammu is facing a demographic change at an alarming rate. 바카라The Gujjars are encroaching upon the forests and water resources and the government is doing nothing,바카라 he bemoans. 바카라There바카라s also smuggling of cattle taking place amid a clear surge in illegal settlements in Jammu and surrounding districts. We see cases of Gujjars occupying state land, and attacking the police who reach the spot for evacuation.바카라
Author-researcher Zafar Choudhary says the right-wing intervention in Kathua should be seen in the context of the politics of Kashmir. 바카라At the roots of the conflict is the Muslim-majority character of J&K,바카라 he maintains. 바카라Now, that is further worsened by Pakistan바카라s support to the separatist sentiment. 바카라The more the conflict prolongs and deepens, the more the Muslims come into the spotlight.바카라 In Jammu, Muslims make only 31 per cent of the population바카라and are concentrated mainly in the hilly region. In the economically better-off districts of Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur, they are well under 10 per cent of the population, he notes. 바카라Yet, with Kashmir conflict shaping the region바카라s everyday political narrative, Jammu Muslims, who have never espoused separatist goals, are increasingly considered as 바카라the other바카라 by the Hindu right-wing.바카라
Lawyer Talib says the BJP-led government at the Centre sees Jammu Muslims as loyal citizens. 바카라That has led the right-wing to invoke 바카라land jehad바카라 in the Jammu districts against Gujjars,바카라 he says. 바카라The Manch has for quite a while been working to create a fear among secular Hindus. It바카라s their last resort.바카라
The intention behind the Manch rally, Talib says, is to force the Gujjars leave Rasana and other places. 바카라No different was the idea behind disallowing the girl's burial in the graveyard of her ancestors,바카라 he adds. 바카라They know the Crime Branch probe will expose them before the people. Hence the cry for a CBI probe.바카라
By Naseer Ganai in Srinagar