Not a Hindu, Not a Muslim, Not any kathua girl, Asifa was a human. She was a woman

Not a Hindu.

Not a Muslim.

Not any kathua girl.

Asifa was a human. She was a woman.

As India wakes up to another horror that inflicts on an eight year old girl, it is impossible not to be moved to tears after the terrible details about Kathua rape case. From being drugged, to being gangraped by men who wanted to ‘satisfy their lust’, to being strangled to death in two horrific attempts, to her tiny withered body being dumped in the forest, a child was treated to inhumanity that is unimaginable.

Asifa Bano, belonging to the nomadic Bakerwal (goatherd) tribe, was found dead on January 17 in the Hiranagar area of Kathua, a week after she went missing. For both the kashmiri Muslim and the Jammu Hindus, the Bakkarwalas are perceived as outsiders and has received scant attention. The Bakkarwalas are not used to being in the news. Their way is to evade and move on. But how to negotiate this present time??

Police investigations revealed she was held captive inside a temple, sedated, and repeatedly raped before her murder. The police have arrested eight people, including four police personnel — a head constable, a sub-inspector and two special police officers — in the case and filed charges against seven of them. The primary accused include a 15-year-old juvenile, Sanji Ram, Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria, Special Police Officer Surinder Kumar, Parvesh Kumar, and Vishal Jangotra. Sub-inspector Anand Dutta and head constable Tilak Raj have been arrested for helping the accused destroy evidence. ’Carefully planned strategy.’

How can our nation be safed when people like political leaders, police are included in such heinous crime?

Recent news inflicted the acused plead not guilty and asked for narco analysis test.

How can our nation produce such depraved souls? And how can they be protected under the guise of religion and nationalism?

The religion of the victim and the rapist should never matter. A child deserves only love irrespective of caste, religion and a rapist deserves only punishment irrespective of caste and religion.

She was no hindu. She was no muslim. She was an eight year old girl who didn’t even know the meaning of rape.

How did we go from #BetiBachao to #BalatkariKoBachao?

This is a barbaric injustice which needs to be questioned and answered.

People are becoming more insensitive by calling Asifa ‘the new Nirbhaya’ insisting that they have made peace with the brutality of rape that happened with 23 year old Jyoti Singh Pandey.

We read incidents of rape every single day; obviously because a woman is raped every 20 minutes in our country. Yet, we react when it becomes a political matter. The defining trait od inhuman people is that they let hatred subsume everything. Kindness, empathy and love are replaced by a maddening desire for violence, vengeance and injustice in the name of some pervert philosophy. Every act is directed towards serving some evil ideology even if it warrants complete surrender of humanity’s ideals. The Kathua rape and its aftermath have all the trademark signs of inhuman behaviour.

Our anger is as cheap as our lives.

We have not only failed the kathua rape victim or any other but all our daughters