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| Kulgam rape victim cries for justice Act now or repent later | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 22: A serious allegation of abduction and rape has been raised against two uniformed men by a tribal married woman in south Kashmir Kulgam district.
Rukaya Bano, aged 30 told the Jammu and Kashmir police that she had gone out of her home for ablutions around 7 pm on Tuesday when two men in uniform carrying assault weapons had abducted her and taken her to a Kotha in the area where they gang raped her for two days.
The woman was allowed to go home after two days and that is when she reported the incident to the local police. Damhal Hanjipora police station has registered a case of abduction and rape against two unidentified men in uniform. Nasir Aslam Wani, Jammu and Kashmir minister of state for home and Kuldeep Khuda, state director of police rushed to the village where the relatives and the victim narrated the details of the gruesome incident to them. The victim and the relatives were assured action against the guilty, but the people in the area are not satisfied with the official assurances.
They want the state government to move in swiftly and bring the guilty to justice before the situation takes an ugly turn. There were public protests and shutdown in Kulgam which continued for the second day on Friday.
There are elements waiting to exploit the situation and disturb the present peace in the Valley which has witnessed a summer full of tourists, Amarnath Yatris and encouraging business activities. The Valley had witnessed a summer like the present after three years of consecutive public violence and disturbances.
The corps commander of the army's Srinagar based 15th corps, Lt. general SA Hasnain moved in quickly and ordered an internal probe to identify the culprits if they belonged to the army. General Hasnain said the allegation was very serious and needed immediate action, but he also cautioned that the army had recently carried out an operation against the terrorists in the area and there were elements who wanted to create a situation for the security forces and the state government.
"We are not ruling out anything. That is why we are keeping all options open. The possibility of a chink in our armour cannot be ruled out, but it is impossible that two army men could remain away from their unit with weapons and radio sets for two days", the general maintained.
He also said that it was common knowledge in the Valley that the terrorists also use combat uniforms and radio sets. The fact that there were more than one version to the incident also hinted at the possibility of some invisible hands working up a mischief to defame the security forces.
Yet, it is the duty of the state government to vigorously pursue the investigations and ensure that the SIT set up to investigate the incident takes the investigations to a logical conclusion before it is too late.
Nobody must shy away from identifying the culprits and ensuring that they are given a befitting punishment so that incidents like this are not repeated in the future.
The courage of the woman to come out in the open to voice the allegations must be appreciated and valued. Her relatives, especially her husband and others must be appreciated for their courage to stand the disgrace and the stigma that automatically gets attached with such unfortunate victims. It is not an ordinary courage that the victim has shown. Not many victims like her would accept to voice the allegations in the public and decide to face the police and the public after the tragedy that she underwent at the hands of barbaric uncivilized criminals for whom the death penalty would not be too much to demand.
The people of the Valley have seen many tragedies during the last 20 years of unending turmoil there. The state government has not been able to infuse confidence and faith in the people of the Valley whose sufferings have been endless and pathetic to narrate. |
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