Kashmir: Inequality and Discriminaton is why an 8 year old was Raped
This was sent to me by a friend Assabah Kahn, Rotary Peace fellow whom I studied with in Bangkok. She is a journalist dealing with the horrors of Kashmir suppressed by India in an occupation without end it seems. She has seen the deaths for herself, she has seen the brutality of oppression, she has sought to speak up in a ocean of indifference and corruption. Yet I would say, keep on keeping on, don’t give up.
The key points here really focus on the fact that Kashmir is occupied by India. I’ve been to Jammu and it is predominantly Hindu which is a strategy to populate the area so Kashmiri’s don’t have a demographic majority. Moreover, minorities being persecuted due to fear of Muslims as the ‘other’ coming to the area they want to occupy. The people are at war because the government have occupied the country. You see this occupation of lands in other countries in order to breed out the ‘other’. This divide and conquer mentality is division which comes from fear not love. Yet many go to temples ask for blessings, but do not truly understand the spiritual world of ‘love’ that is inclusive of all people no matter culture, caste, gender, age or any other difference. This fear of difference runs to the heart of all discrimination. The lack of skills to dialogue differences, to find ways to coexist. We are speaking about families, communities learning to live together. I spoke briefly about UNESCO and how they want to build cultures of peace. The US and Israel pulled out of UNESCO and I shake my head.
We have to do this work and it has to be expanded. But to-date the world moves away from peace in favour of narratives of ‘terrorism’ rather than resolution. We think moving people on, or clearing the issue resolves matters, it doesn’t . Respect moves us to face issues with courage and not sweep things under the carpet. Gender discrimination and the violation of children is another powerful issue here. India has a horrendous child prostitution trade and this is featured around the world. We have to take a good hard look at why these abuses are permissible, why police and judiciary can be influenced financially, we have to return to ethics, decency and fairness to ensure humanity rises above primitive urges that lead to tragedy as this story unfolds.
This article mortifies me and the tears roll down my face as I imagine the torment for an innocent little girl raped and killed in a Hindu Temple. The point is made on Facebook that if this had happened to a Hindu child by a Muslim there would be an uproar. Is it possible for people to get passed their discrimination, to question their thinking and rather than see a particular ethnic group, to look at the human being. This is seeing through the eyes of a higher intelligence that loves all. The differences are simply a feature of diversity, we are same same but different. We fight against others, we divide, we discriminate, we form groups yet we have such difficulty seeing the beauty of another human. For me that is what I see as my heart reaches out to all no matter their background. Can the Hindu’s remember how the British treated them? Can they find a way to revive ahimsa (nonviolence, love) and really live it in accordance with virtues?
Can people understand that gender inequality regards the little girl as ‘nothing’, she is the child of the ‘enemy’, she is an object to be used in order to hurt others and gratify selfish self interest? Can people recognise why conflict resolution, self responsibility for ones actions and community values make a difference in the protection of people? I hear some say equality is not realistic and I sit back and know they have never experienced prejudice, discrimination, power imbalances or the loss in murder or warfare. There are many arm chair critics who know nothing of the impact that prejudice in all its forms creates and justifies.
The reality is we are all born equal (no thought, no culture, no difference). It is only as a child grows and is taught by parents does it gain this sense of identity, which in truth is just a story every grouping tells themselves to gain a sense of security, belonging, place etc. Every person deserves to be treated with respect, dignity and honour as each human life is precious. There will never be any honour in killing. There is no justice in killing. It was Gandhi who said ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’ and he was right.
To read this article is deeply disturbing for me. To imagine the disgusting pleasure of fulfilling lust by drugging an 8 year old child so boys can ejaculate with no feeling or empathy for this little girl is beyond horrific. To do this to send a message to her tribal group Bakerwal. Apparently Rohingya Muslim families had moved there and the Hindu’s were threatened.
Imagine how this little girl felt when she woke up from a drug induced state in an unfamiliar place feeling excruciating pain in her vagina, where she would have ripped, blood would have been all over her legs and stomach. She would have felt sick, in unbelievable pain and absolutely numb with terror, this is the real terrorism. This is what inequality breeds from small to horrendous acts. Violence is condoned as peers encourage this, adults incite it, justified for one groups own selfish reasons, that females are for male pleasure and the accomplices who clearly feel no empathy for this child. In reality this was not so much about the tribal conflict, it was using a conflict to attack a child. If the reason was to frighten others off why not just kill the child quickly, why drug her, rape her, this is violence against females.
Imagine when those boys came back, she is drugged her again, as if somehow this negates the horror for her and then the violation to her body as an object. Actually I don’t think they cared about her feelings at all, on contemplating drugging they did it to stop resistance, so they get what they want, no fuss. She has no right to say no, no right to struggle, just used.
The fact her vagina is small, that she is not sexually mature, just a child, beggars belief. Then these cruel boys raped her before they murder her. Can you imagine how she felt.
The two perpetrators were two accused in the case—a local 60-year-old villager, Sanji Ram, and a Special Police officer, Deepak Khajuria and another corrupt policeman was paid to be silent. The juvenile was the nephew of Ram and friends Mannu and Jangotra. Apparently the nephew had bad behaviour towards girls, where did he learn this?
When they go to kill her Deepak Khajuria wants to rape her before he kills her. No drugs, so her last memory is the full feeling of life is being raped by a grown man. He tries to strangle her. I can’t even bare to think this. I am making myself write this to face this as this is why peace is needed on this planet. She would have welcomed death.
I am sitting here still for a moment. These are Hindu’s, they believe in reincarnation. So do I – there is a wise adage – what goes around comes around. This awaits anyone who commits a crime against anyone. You WILL experience it as we are here to learn about why only love is real. Some who are unevolved, uneducated, lead by those who care nothing for the rights or dignity of others, will travel through the darkness of hatred and cruelty to discover the face of the girl is their own face. She will haunt them every night. When they remember the innocence in her eyes, they see the pain and horror in her shocked stare and this image will not leave them for the rest of their lives. This I feel.
In the spiritual reality we are ONE, what we do to others returns to the self. This is a universal law. When I feel this I can calm down not because I want them to suffer, I don’t, but I do not want her pain, suffering and death to be for no reason.
This blog is inspired by Asifa, she is your child, she is my child, she is the world’s children. What future do we create for them? Do we make ridiculous statements that females are inferior, they are unequal, that equality is impossible, these are the statements of those who do not feel equal to others and who play with half truths. When you know equality you will respect every person as they are just like you, you will not argue we can’t have justice, you will know that you can be the change you wish the world to see. You will, by your example, show boys what respect to females looks like, you will teach boys that females are not for sex but love and respect. I send this to the film industry with its distorted images of females and any systems that divide people. You will see yourself in Asifa, for she is you and you are she. Never forget this. WE ARE ALL EQUAL, TREAT ALL AS IF THEY ARE YOUR FAMILY.
WARNING: There is a disturbing image of Asifa. What was her crime? To be vulnerable and female and belong to a tribe that others felt threatened by even though there was NO THREAT, an imagined enemy. her people were demonised through stories.
I ask you what would peace look like?
What would love do next?
What would truth reveal?
What world do you want for your children?
You choose through your thought, word and action.
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/crime/asifa-the-anatomy-of-a-hate-crime
Crime
Asifa: The Anatomy of a Hate Crime
The police chargesheet on the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu reveals horrifying details of her last five days
MOHAMMED YOUSUF DOES not remember exactly when he decided to settle in Rasana village in Jammu region’s Kathua district. But he says it must have been about 10-12 winters ago. Yousuf is a Bakerwal, a nomadic tribe of Jammu & Kashmir. His community spends summers at high altitude and winters in the plains, where they move along with their livestock. After his two children died in an accident, Yousuf decided to adopt his sister’s newborn child in 2010. She was named Asifa. In the last few years, the Bakerwals in Jammu province have been facing opposition from local Dogra Hindus. Many Hindus in Jammu fear that the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley has plans to change the demography of Hindu-majority Jammu by resettling Muslims here from elsewhere. The settling of a few hundred Rohingya Muslim families in Jammu had fuelled these concerns. In towns and villages along the international border with Pakistan in particular, tension between some sections of Hindus and Bakerwals has been running high. It is this suspicion and hatred that consumed the life of eight-year-old Asifa. The details in the chargesheet filed by the J&K Police’s Crime Branch in a local court on April 9th and 10th against eight accused reveals horrifying details of her last five days after she was abducted on January 10th this year.
“We have solved the case, but what makes me really sad is that police officers were involved in this,” says Ahfadul Mujtaba, Inspector-General, Crime Branch.
Asifa’s body was found in a forest next to Rasana on January 17th, seven days after she went missing while looking for her ponies that had ventured far while grazing. Two days later, the local police arrested a juvenile boy who they said had confessed that it was he who had abducted the girl and later killed her with the blow of a stone to her head.
But as Bakerwals and others mounted pressure on the government to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it was turned over to the Crime Branch on January 22th. After sustained interrogation of the juvenile boy and an investigation involving conventional and modern methods, the police say they identified the main two accused in the case—a local 60-year-old villager, Sanji Ram, and a Special Police officer, Deepak Khajuria.
The story that has emerged after the Crime Branch investigation, now a part of the chargesheet, is as follows:
Sanji Ram had decided to put together a plan to scare Bakerwals away from the area. He had been observing Asifa for a few days; she often grazed her ponies on forest land around his home. He decided to kill Asifa in order to instil fear among other members of her community. Ram shared this idea with Deepak Khajuria and the juvenile boy, his nephew. The boy had been expelled from his school three months earlier because of ‘bad behaviour’ with girls. His parents had then sent him to his uncle’s home, where he took care of the cattle.
To facilitate Asifa’s abduction, Khajuria first went to a chemist shop, taking along a prescription of his maternal uncle who has psychiatric problems. He asked for a medicine used for treating seizures and sleep disorders. The chemist did not have the specific drug, but gave him the same formulation under a different brand name, Epitril. Khajuria then sought Ram’s nephew’s help in abducting the girl, promising that in return he would help him clear his exams through cheating. The boy shared this plan with his close friend, Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu. On January 9th, the boy and Mannu went to a nearby town and purchased four doses of a local drug, Manar.
In places along the Pakistani border, the tension between some sections of Hindus and Bakerwals has been running high. It is this hatred that consumed the life of Asifa.
On the afternoon of January 10th, Ram’s nephew heard Asifa enquiring from a woman about her missing ponies. He told Asifa that he had seen her ponies and led her to the jungle, accompanied by Mannu. According to the police, by this time the girl had sensed trouble and tried to run away. But Ram’s nephew caught hold of her and pushed her to the ground. Then he forcibly fed her a dose of Manar, after which she fell unconscious. It is here that he raped her. Afterwards, Mannu tried raping her as well, but could not.
The girl was then taken to a small temple managed by Sanji Ram. The next day, SPO Khajuria and Ram’s nephew went back to check on her. The nephew, says the chargesheet, lifted her head and Khajuria slid two tablets of Epitril down her throat. In the evening the nephew went again to the temple to light a lamp and found the girl still unconscious. The same night, he called up his cousin, Sanji Ram’s son, Vishal Jangotra, who is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in agriculture in Meerut. The boy asked Jangotra to come immediately if he wanted to satisfy his lust.
Jangotra arrived the next morning. Two hours later, they went to the temple where Asifa was given another three tablets. All this while, she was on an empty stomach.
By this time, Sanji Ram had taken into confidence another policeman, head constable Tilak Raj. On the afternoon of January 12th, after Mohammed Yousuf filed a complaint with the police, the search for the missing girl began. Both Deepak Khajuria and Tilak Raj were a part of the search party and kept up the pretence of looking for the girl.
According to the police, Sanji Ram visited his sister the same day and confided in her that her son was involved in the kidnapping and confinement of the girl. Through her, a packet of Rs 1.5 lakh was sent to Tilak Raj. Through him, an offer for sharing a total of Rs 5 lakh was made to the investigating officer of the case, Sub Inspector Anand Dutta. He is now one of the accused.
On the morning of January 13th, Sanji Ram, his son and nephew went to temple where the uncle-nephew duo performed rituals. After Sanji Ram left, his son raped Asifa. Then she was again raped by his nephew, the juvenile. After this, the boy fed Asifa three tablets of Epitril and kept the other two under a heap of garbage. These have now been recovered by the police.
It was the day of Lohri. After the festivities in the evening, Sanji Ram told his accomplices that the time had come to kill the girl. That night, she was taken to a culvert in front of the temple by the nephew, his friend Mannu and Jangotra. Shortly afterwards, Khajuria reached the spot as well and said he wanted to rape the girl before she was killed. After doing it, Khajuria put her neck on his left thigh and tried to strangle her. He could not. Sanji Ram’s nephew then came forth and killed her by pressing his knee against her back and strangulating her with her chunni. Then, to make sure that she was dead, he hit her twice with a stone.
The body was taken back to the temple. On the morning of January 15th, the body was thrown in the forest.
But once the case got too hot to handle for the police, the accused decided to direct all guilt at the juvenile and have him confess falsely that he had conspired to kill the girl along with a local shepherd. On sustained interrogation, however, the boy broke down and narrated the whole story.
Sanji Ram, it turns out, was dead against Bakerwals settling in the area. He always urged his community not to provide any assistance to them. He was known to harangue one of his neighbours for having sold a piece of land to a Bakerwal. Head Constable Tilak Raj and Khajuria, according to the police, also had a prejudiced view of Bakerwals. They suspected them of indulging in cow slaughter and drug trafficking, says the chargesheet.
The case has assumed a political hue in Jammu with some members of BJP, Congress and other parties coming out in favour of the accused SPO, Khajuria. On April 9th, when the police approached the Kathua court to file the chargesheet, a group of lawyers tried to stop them. The police have filed an FIR against them.
“We had no pressure from anyone,” says Ramesh Jala, SSP, Crime Branch, who supervised the probe. “We were reporting the developments of the case to the High Court almost on a weekly basis.” The 15-member team of the Crime Branch, say senior police officials, has an impeccable record. Jala himself has survived several terrorist attacks during his stint in Kashmir Valley.
The fate of Mohammed Yousuf and his people in Rasana is not clear yet. After Asifa was found, locals did not even allow the family to bury her body on Yousuf’s own land. It had to be buried in a neighbouring village where Yousuf’s relatives live. In the wake of the chargesheet, the life of Bakerwals in this region is bound to get more difficult.