In a shocking turn of events, J&K Police on Monday arrested the tribal activist Taliban Hussain who was protesting the rape and murder of the 8 year old Ashifa at Kathua. This so when the culprit responsible for the heinous crime is still at large. Ironically, Police said Hussain was arrested for creating nuisance and “blocking the national highway for hours”. It also used batons to disperse demonstrators unhappy over the governments delay in arresting the culprits. This is such a sorry state of affairs. How can Police so brazenly arrest an activist protesting the rape and murder of a minor girl while failing to apprehend the criminal himself. It is appalling and adds insult to the public outrage over the incident. The little girl was missing for a week and Police could do little to trace her. It was only when her lifeless body was found face down near the forest that Police swung into action. But it is yet to apprehend the killer. It has, however, moved promptly to arrest the activist protesting the rape and murder and some reports say he might even be booked under Public Safety Act.
While this shows the rank official apathy towards a brutal crime, the civil society in Kashmir including even the media has similarly been guilty of not showing enough outrage. Most of the newspapers in the state have largely played down the story. It has rarely made to the frontpage. Barring a few exceptions, reports on the incident have been of a generalized nature. So much so, with passing time Ashifas rape and murder has been reduced to yet another statistic. This indifference is dangerous. For it not only exposes us as morally numb people but also routinizes such horrifying crimes which only encourages their recurrence. On the contrary, in Pakistan, the media played up the rape and murder of seven year old Zainab and pressed urgent action by the government. Media has also started campaign against the child sex abuse in the country and spotlighted the crimes against the children. Civil society has organized protests against Zainabs rape and murder. Pakistan Government has commensurately responded to this outrage by ensuring that the culprit is arrested.
Why is a similar sense of outrage absent in Kashmir? There is no easy answer to this question. True, this state has been witness to a disproportionate violence over the past three decades, so we have come to take for granted the violence of all kind. Hardly any incident stirs us into action. What is more, our reaction to violence has either been excessively politicized or communalized. Our response as a community depends on which side of the ideological or political divide we are on. So even Ashifas rape and murder which apparently falls into a politically neutral zone wont outrage us. This calls for a deep introspection. We as a society must think that no matter what our politics and ideology, we cant fail in our collective duty towards the safety of our children.
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