SRINAGAR: In a shocking case, a self-styled “preacher”, whose promotional ads have been appearing in several leading Srinagar dailies for past several years, was arrested by police on Tuesday for repeated sexual exploitation of young girls on the pretext of ‘purifying’ them at an institute he ran, police said on Tuesday.
Gulzar Ahmad Bhat aka Syed Gulzar who ran a residential institution for girls which offered short duration courses in religious studies in Khansahab area of Central Budgam district was arrested for several cases of rape and misconduct, police said.
A police spokesman said “district police of Budgam received a joint complaint by four minor girls who were reading in an institute claiming religious preaching headed by Gulzar Ahmed Bhat, son of Ghulam Qadir Bhat, resident of Latter Chadur (Shamasabad) Khan Sahib. The minor girls claimed they had been repeatedly sexually exploited during their stay in the institute,” statement said.
It said the institute was running for last several years, and used to provide boarding and lodging to its students, especially female students.
Gulzar Ahmed Bhat was arrested after girls recorded their confessional statement before the Court of Sub-Judge in Budgam.
The confessional recording of a victim obtained by CNS reveals that Gulzar Bhat used to lure girls and woman and later on with the help of his cronies assaulted them sexually.
A victim from Pampore said that there were about 500 girls staying in that centre and every new entrant was being motivated and guided by one Shakeela Bano from Lolipora.
She claims that after her entry into Gulzars religious centre, Shakeela took her in a room and advised her to serve Peer Sahab by heart if she wants to get rid of her miseries.
Another girl Sumi from Hanjivera was also active in motivating girls to serve Gulzar.
A prominent local cleric Molvi Mohammad Amin said that scores of girls approached his organization World Khatme-Nubuwat Movement. We were shocked after girls made startling revelations.
Amin alleged that Gulzar would manipulate the verses of holy Quran to motivate girls into sex. He alleged that Gulzar has so far raped nearly 200 girls in his hostel.
One Noor Mohammad, who served as Gulzars Aamir-e-Aala lured me to the centre. I was asked to enter Hujra-i-Pak (Gulzars personal chamber). As I entered, Molvi Gulzar ordered me to shut the door. He looked into my eyes and said, Marriage is not important for the propagation of religion. Where ever I will touch you, that part of the body will not burn in Hell. Mein noor houn tum aag ho, noor aag say miley ga to poora noor ban jaey ga. Then he looked at me with scary eyes and I lost my conscience, my eyes were watching everything but my body was unconscious when he took me to the bed, said victim from Pampore.
One of the victims claimed that Gulzar had turned that centre into a sex-den. This beast used to exploit girls every night. He had started two months religious course and was claiming to be a prophet, she said.
Sources said that Gulzar Ahmed Bhat had chosen this line after divorcing his wife in 1993. He is totally illiterate but with the help of some unknown persons he abruptly turned into a cleric and soon established a well organized centre in Budgam motivating people especially the parents of poor and helpless girls to get send them to his centre, said one of the local residents.
The wrongdoings of Gulzar Ahmed Bhat came to light after his photographs surfaced on social networking site facebook a few days ago in which he is seen surrounded by women with a cigarette in his hand. Some of his followers at that time had however claimed that the woman holding Peers hand was his relative.
Gulzar would often place huge advertisements in some prominant local newspapers and was also regularly appearing in local cable channels.
Deputy Inspector General Police, Central Kashmir Afhadul Mujtaba said that more arrests were expected in this regard. We have not arrested a Molvi but an impostor who used to exploit girls sexually. So far only four girls have come forward against him and we have started the investigation, Mujtaba said.
SHO Khansahab, Ghulam Jeelani said that Gulzar, as per the statements recorded before court seems to be a rapist. We have arrested him and investigation is on, he said.
All the four girls who appeared before the Sub-Judge Budgam and recorded their statements belong to South Kashmir and have been identified as Firdousa Rashid, Rutba Jan, Roohi Fayaz and Shahida Shabir.
A case FIR No: 40/2013 u/s 376 RPC stands registered in Police Station Khan Sahib and the investigations are going in full swing. The statements of the victims have been recorded before the Honble Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Budgam which corroborates the complaint. The victims have also been medically examined. The victims belong to different districts of the valley. The investigation reveals that the above said institute was running for last several years, the boarding & lodging was being provided to the students by the head of the institute. With Inputs from CNS
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