Killed for worshiping a different God :: Raped and defiled : India’s shame
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 16 2018 -

Raped, defiled and killed because the God that her family believed in and worshipped differed from the God that the rapists and murderers worshipped.

She was only 8 years old and could not have known what a Muslim and what a Hindu is, but she was kidnapped, drugged, kept captive for days and raped to be ultimately killed.

The trauma and pain that she underwent before death rescued her from further pain can only be imagined.

This is the story of the last few days of the young Asifa Bano and mind you, she was only 8 when she was raped, defiled and killed.

Her death was tragic enough, but what has added more to the tragedy of her death is the seeming indifference of the political class and the efforts made to shield the perpetrators of the crime.

If some cops have been named as being complicit in the crime, which should certainly go down as one of the most heinous in the crime history of the country, then it was the turn of some lawyers in Jammu who have come together under some name to try and prevent any other lawyer from presenting her case in the Court of law.

The incident happened in January but the full horror of the story came out in the public domain only this month thanks to the media and some individuals who dared to defy the powers that be and an indifferent Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and tell the story of Asifa Bano to the whole world.

The story of Asifa Bano is a shame on India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi need to do more than merely condemn the ghastly killing and the promise that the guilty will not be spared.

If the past is any indication, then the words, “guilty will not be spared”, will remain just that, mere words or at best justice after decades.

The agenda behind the ghastly murder cannot be more despicable - To keep off the nomadic group of people to which Asifa belonged.

This is unacceptable and cannot be the India that the BJP led Government under Narendra Modi has in mind.

With the story, real story, detailing how the child was drugged, imprisoned and repeatedly raped inside a Temple for days a story of a well co-ordinated move that could not have been carried out by a group of rag tag army emerges.

This is what is even more frightening.

What is even more loathesome is the connivance of some policemen in the ghastly crime as well as the efforts taken up by some lawyers of Jammu to get the case blocked in the Court.

All this speaks of a co-ordinated move and this is what is equally frightening as well as disturbing.

In condemning a girl, so young that she would not have known what it is to be a Muslim or a Hindu, to such a ghastly death, the forces of some religious fundamentalists are surely trying to paint the whole of India in a colour which will be only to their liking.

As in the infamous case of Nirbhaya at Delhi some years back, it is also reported that the juvenile in this case was the most sadistic and herein brings the question of whether the lawmakers of the land may explore the idea of making some exceptions for juveniles who are involved in the most heinous of crimes.