On one wintry evening, horses returned back to home, but the cute little girl, who accompanied horses, didn’t come back to her mother lap. It was 10th of January, 2018, when she was missing after she went to the forest in the afternoon to bring back home her horses. Her parents couldn’t shut their anxious eyes during that blasted night for their little kid. Armed with flash lights, lanterns and axes, they went deep into the forest and searched through the night, but they could not find their beloved little daughter anywhere. On the morning of 17th January, 2018, the excruciating news broke out making her parents thunderstruck. It is Asifa Banu, an eight years old girl lived with her parents in a village, named Kathua, around 72 kms east from Jammu city of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Her father, Md. Yusuf Pujwala, belongs to a community of Muslim nomadic shepherds, called Gujjars, who crisscross the Himalayas with their horses, goats and buffaloes. Her mother Mst. Nasima is a house wife. Coincidentally, two of Md. Yusuf’s daughters were died in an accident some years ago. On his wife's insistence, he adopted Asifa, the daughter of his brother-in-law, as their own beloved daughter. Corpse of little Asifa was found in bushes amidst the forest. She was cruelly murdered after being brutally tortured and gang-raped. Her legs were broken, her nails had turned black and there were blue and red marks on her arm and fingers. To ensure she was dead, killers hit her twice on the head with a stone even after her death.

Two days later after Asifa went missing, her family filed a police complaint, but police didn’t act promptly and sympathetically. As news of missing of a little girl spread, Gujjar community in J & K started protests and blocked a highway, forcing police to assign two officers in search of Asifa. But most unfortunately, one of the police officer who was assigned with the process of searching Asifa, Deepak Khajuria, was himself arrested in connection with the murder and rape of Asifa. On this report case, FIR No 10/2018 U/S 363 RPC was registered in Hiranagar Police Station, J & K, and investigation was taken up. Although, six days after Asifa's mutilated body was found in the forest, the J & K Chief Minister, Mst. Mehbooba Mufti, ordered an investigation of the case by the crime branch of the state police. Subsequently, the investigation of the case was transferred to the Crime Branch of J & K police from Hiranagar Police Station and a team of officers had been constituted headed by Shri Naveed Peerzada, ASP Crime Branch, Kashmir, for carrying out further investigation of the case. Police arrested total eight accused so far, including a retired Govt. official, four working police officers and a juvenile in connection with Asifa's rape and murder.

But, very unfortunately, two ministers of BJP, being the partner of the ruling coalition J & K Govt. with People's Democratic Party (PDP), attended a rally organized in support of accused; although they were forced to resign from the ministry in consequence of strong adverse criticism from the different parts of the civil society. Charge sheet for the case was framed by the police against Sanji Ram, Surender Verma, Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj, Deepak Khajuria,  Sanji Ram's son, Vishal, his nephew, Shubam Sangra, a juvenile, and his friend, Parvesh Kumar. Sanji Ram, a 60-year-old retired Govt. Officer, allegedly planned this heinous crime with the help of police officers, Surender Verma, Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj and Deepak Khajuria. It is reported that Asifa was cramped in a local temple for several days and given sedatives that kept her unconscious and raped several times by different men. The charge sheet alleges that she was "raped for days, tortured and then finally murdered". She was strangled to death and then the culprits hit on her head twice with a stone to confirm her death. The Gujjars wanted to bury Asifa in a graveyard where they bought some land a few years ago and had already buried five people in the graveyard; but they were forced to bury her in another village seven miles away due to threats from part of Hindu right-wing activists. Such a horrendous crime did not get much attention in Jammu; but newspapers in Srinagar brought the wretched incidence in the lime light by publishing the news on their front pages. Local Gujjar people believe that the accused men craved to terrorize the Gujjar community for leaving Jammu, as the shepherds from Gujjar community use public and forest land in Jammu for grazing, which has recently brought them into conflict with some local residents in the region. On the other hand, Mr. Ankur Sharma, one of the lawyers who protested on behalf of the accused, alleged that the Gujjor nomads were trying to alter the demographics of Jammu.

Although J & K is a plural society which reflects a complex pattern of diversities that operate at multiple level – religious, cultural, linguistic, regional, caste and other levels. Central to conflict situation is the Kashmiri identity politics. Apart from Kashmiri identity politics, there is a range of other kinds of identity politics that makes the internal politics of the state of J & K quite vibrant. This context of social diversity on one hand and political divergence on the other not merely has the potential of generating inter-regional and inter-communal tensions within the state, but also has the implications for resolution of the conflict.  But whatever conflicts exist and whatever diversity persists within the society, such a heinous crime should be unconditionally condemned from all corners of the society and should never be indulged through the musk of race, religion and caste.  

We all, irrespective of race, religion and caste, should come forward for the sake of justice for little Asifa and her distressed parents; and thus, humanity will stand on its victory lap over all diversities in the society. As Asifa is not a ‘Gujjar’, nor even a Muslim or a Hindu or a Christian or a Sheikh; she is a stigma-less innocent face of the world humanity, who appeals justice by spreading her little hands before all of us. In the wake of outrage over the brutal rape and murder of little Asifa, the Central Govt. of India approved an ordinance on last Saturday  to allow courts to pronounce death penalty  to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age.  We all are eagerly waiting for the justice for little Asifa and for many more innocent rape victims.  

The writer is an Indian educationist

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