news details |
|
|
| Majlis protests against Delhi gangrape with purpose | | | If a few hundred souls in south Kashmir's Shopian town were stirred over the gangrape of a 23-year old girl in Delhi it was the result of a well thought of plan to focus country's attention on some incidents of rape in the Kashmir valley.The purpose was quite visible because the anti-gangrape demonstration in Shopian had been engineered by Majlis-e-Mushawrat which does not accept state's accession with India as final.The aim became evident when after a gap of nine days of the rape incident in Delhi that Shopian town witnessed a breezy anti-gangrape demonstration.If the entire valley has remained immune to the incident in Delhi why only Shopian,which is considered to be a stronghold of separatists, especially Jamait-e-Islami,saw groups of people, loyal to the Majlis staging the demonstration ?And it is not difficult to find the reason because the Majlis activists have announced conditional support to those protesting against the Delhi incident.
Reports say that the Majlis-e-Mushawrat held demonstrations in Shopian to protest against the gangrape of 23-year-old female student in Delhi and urged the Government of India to ensure justice to the rape victims of both Delhi as well as Kashmir.The peaceful demonstrations were held outside Jamia Masjid, Shopian. Hundreds of people had assembled to express solidarity with Delhi rape victim and seek justice for the rape victims.The protesters advocated public hanging of the perpetrators of the gang rape."We can feel the pain of this innocent girl of Delhi given the fact that our own women have been treated no differently during the last 20 years of turmoil.
The rapists should be hanged to death in public to set an example regardless of who they are," said Mohammad Shafi Khan, president of Majlis-e-Mushawrat Shopian.He opposed selective treatment of rape cases. "Whatever has happened in Delhi has happened here in Shopian too or for that matter in other places of Kashmir and the punishment should be no different in all these cases," he has stated.Some among the protesters said they can understand what the victim girl in Delhi and her parents might be going through. "It is time that people of India stand for the rape victims of Kashmir like they are doing for gang rape victim of Delhi".Other protesters said people of India and government should stop seeing Kashmir through the prism of pseudo nationalism and ensure justice is delivered to rape victims regardless of their geographical locations.
There is no doubt that women in Kashmir, more than men,have suffered severe ordeals,tribulations,insults and indignities during the 20 years of militancy.If the protesters want people of India to stage demonstrations against rape incidents that have taken place in Kashmir during the last 20 years they cannot be faulted.Their only fault is that they have been misled to believe that all the incidents of rapes had been engineered by the security forces.If the Majlis talks of the alleged rape of two women in Shopian their finger points towards th security forces.But they need to understand that the inquiry report of the committee, constituted by the Government,had absolved the security forces.The case was similar to other rape incidents.And record reveals that action had been initiated against a few security officials when they were alleged to have been involved in rape cases.
Though those in Kashmir who want people in India to agitate against rape incidents in Kashmir actually want so because they believe that security forces have been involved in all the rape cases when the reality is that militants, especially foreign mercenaries,had been involved in such incidents.
And records show that in certain cases these militants forced scores of girls to marry them.As far as involvement of militants in rape cases in kashmir is concerned it has been condemned by the civil society,by intellectuals and by politicians in rest of the country.Yes,the public anger in India against rape incidents in Kashmir has neither been as spontaneous and as fiery as it has been in case of the Delhi incident.It is so because people in India knew that their anger would not force the Government to order speedy trial of the rapists when these rapists had been foreign mercenaries who were not traceable.
And no wonder many among such rapists in the camp of militants have already been killed in operations launched by the security forces.It is better if the two sides avoid attaching motives and instead work for framing a system under which rapists face strict penalty. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
