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Justice for Asifa - Could this be India’s #Metoo moment?
4-17-2018
A similar outrage gripped the nation Five years ago where a notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year old physiotherapy student took place on a bus in Delhi just after 9pm on 16 December 2012. The brutality of the assault stunned India and the press dubbed her Nirbhaya - the fearless one.
The widespread demonstrations are calling for justice over an attack that happened in the disputed region of Kashmir and another allegedly involving a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP party.
The mass protests #JusticeForAsifa were sparked as a police charge sheet revealed horrifying details of the alleged gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl, Asifa, in a Hindu Temple.
 In another Rape case, a father died in police custody after accusing a BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar from the ruling BJP party of the abduction and rape of his 16-year-old daughter nine months ago. She attempted suicide in front of the residence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath house after failing to get any support from the Police.
"Both cases have shaken the conscience of the nation, shaken the hearts and souls of people," said Feroze Mithiborwala, an organiser of a protest in Mumbai on Friday.
India registered about 40,000 rape cases in 2016, up from 25,000 in 2012, government data show. Rights activists say thousands more go unreported.
Asifa’s case has really shaken the nation’s conscience since she was just a tender age of 8 years old and raped in a Hindu Temple and murdered in the most unimaginable way.
Timeline
January 10th 2018 Asifa went missing.
January 11th Asifa was reported missing by her father.
January 17th her mutilated body was found, bearing the marks of gang rape.
April 12th local lawyers tried to prevent the police from filing the Chargesheet.
The horror story unfolded in the 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Crime Branch on April 12th.
The girl was kidnapped and held captive from a village in Jammu's Kathua district on January 10. For the next seven days, she was sedated, starved and gang-raped by a group that included police officers. Then she was murdered - her head was bashed with a stone to ensure that she was dead.
The horror story that unfolded in the police chargesheet even said an officer had asked the killer to wait so he could rape the child one last time.
The chargesheet lists the caretaker of the Devisthan, a small temple, in Rassana village in Kathua, about 90 km from here, as the main conspirator behind the abduction, rape and killing.
.jpg) Sanji Ram was allegedly joined by special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma, friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu, Ram’s nephew, a juvenile, and his son Vishal Jangotra alias “Shamma.”
The charge sheet also names investigating officers, head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took $6000 from Ram to cover up the crucial evidence. A separate charge sheet was filed on Tuesday on the role of the juvenile, who cannot be named according to law.
Dutta even washed the clothes Asifa was wearing at the time of her death to remove any blood or semen stains, they said.
Dutta is among the eight that are under arrest. Among them are also four police officers.
While the BJP's defence of the accused has been "loud" at the state level, at the national level its silence has been deafening, wrote Monobina Gupta, managing editor of The Wire news website, referring to Modi's lack of comment on the case.
.jpg) On Feb 15th A rally of 5000 right-wing group, using the Tricolour, demanded the release of an SPO accused in the case including two BJP Ministers.
Chief Minister of Jammu And Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti called them "nothing short of desecration of national flag".
"Appalled by the marches & protests in defense of the recently apprehended rapist in Kathua. Also horrified by their use of our national flag in these demonstrations, this is nothing short of desecration. The accused has been arrested & the law will follow its course" Ms Mufti tweeted.
Apr 13, 2018 Two ministers of the BJP party, who courted controversy by attending a rally supporting the accused in the case, tendered their resignation to the state BJP chief after Mehbooba Mufti-led party pressed for dropping industries and commerce minister Chander Prakash Ganga and forest minister Lal Singh from the cabinet.
While Chandra Prakash Ganga had termed the arrest of the men as "jungle raj", Lal Singh said, "Why such a hullabaloo on the death of this one girl... many such girls have died here." 
The Pakistan angle in the Kathua rape case
On April 12th Madhya Pradesh BJP president said, “If ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans are raised in Kashmir after the rape of a child who is a daughter of Hindustan, then it must be Pakistani agents who have come here and done so in order to create differences among us.” Nandkumar Singh Chouhan
He condemned the rape and murder, saying: “Such a crime, wherever it happens, is a blot on humanity.” Rapists have no religion, he said.
When Times of India called him to ask why he thinks there’s a Pakistan hand, he reiterated his statement, saying: “It was Pakistan-backed militants who raped and murdered the girl. They have a motive to instigate communal sentiments and provoke Hindus and Muslims against each other.”
PM Modi' silence
Rahul Gandhi called PM Narendra Modi's silence on Kathua and Unnao rape cases "unacceptable".
In a tweet, the 47-year-old Congress president listed out the two questions he wants the prime minister to answer.
"1. What do you think about the growing violence against women and children?
2. Why are accused rapists and murderers protected by the state?
India is waiting," the 47-year-old Congress president tweeted, using the hashtag "SpeakUp."
On April 14 - Modi finally spoke and said: "Incidents being discussed since past two days cannot be part of a civilised society. As a country, as a society, we all are ashamed of it. I want to assure the country that no culprit will be spared, complete justice will be done. Our daughters will definitely get justice."
Modi added that there is a need for all to "come together", keeping aside differences when it came to crimes against women.
"Such incidents, be it in any state of the country, shatter human emotions. I want to assure the nation that no culprit will be spared. Justice will be done. We all need to come together in fight against such evil of the society."
Kathua rape victim's family Lawyer
International Pressure
Several Indian students organisations in the UK, on Sunday April 15th wrote and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi what measures he would take for swift and appropriate justice in the 'crimes of heinous nature against three minor girls in India'.
Demanding justice in the Asifa rape and murder case, and also in the Unnao horror, the organisations said in the letter to the PM: "Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. When you arrive and address Bharat Ki Baat Sabske Saath, you can tell us what those extraordinary measures that you are putting into place to show that enough is not enough."
In the letter, the organisations said they were writing the letter 'with a sense of great distress and horror over the recent crimes of heinous nature against three minor girls in India. In the brutal rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa in Jammu and Kashmir, it was pointed out that a police officer had helped another police officer in concealing evidence. The victim was drugged and held captive for eight days in a temple. "Ministers in the state government have openly supported protests in favour of the accused," the organisations said.
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Asifs's Funeral
When the Gujjars went to bury Asifa in a graveyard that they had purchased a few years ago and had already buried five people they were denied.
When they arrived there they were surrounded by Hindu right-wing activists who threatened them with violence if they were to continue with the burial.
"We had to walk seven miles to bury her in another village," Mr Pujwala said. Two of his daughters were killed in an accident some years ago. On his wife's insistence, he adopted Asifa, the daughter of his brother-in-law.
His wife described Asifa as a "chirping bird" who ran like a "deer".
"That made her the darling of the community," Ms Bibi said. "She was the centre of our universe."
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