[Reader-list] Selective condemnation of rape and murder has become bane of J&K politics

[S. Jabbar]

Sanjay, I think I made myself adequately clear in my last mail:  Fayyaz sees
coercion as rape as does Engineer Rashid, the MLA from Langate.  It could be
sexual harassment or rape.  I don't have enough information to judge whether
the act was consensual.  The courts will decide.

Do I consider it on par with the Shopian rape & murder?  I told you before
and I will repeat it again:  Based on the evidence that we have at the I do
not believe it was either rape or murder. I am perfectly willing to change
my mind if compelling evidence is provided.

The reason I posted Fayyaz's article was because it underscored what many on
this list are guilty of.  Making a noise about things that further their
world views or political interests and keeping quiet when it doesn't.  I
have no axe to grind.  I feel wretched that 2 women died a tragic death and
then they were subjected to the worst kind of public scrutiny for months,
their sexual lives speculated upon, their characters ground down to the
dust.  The so-called custodians of public morality were the worst culprits
in this sick, perverse display of necrophilia.  And in all this din I wonder
whether you or anyone else heard the name of Nigeena Awan, a 16 year old,
Class X student and what happened to her around the same time and the same
place as the infamous Shopian 'gang rape & murder'?




> From: Sanjay Kak <kaksanjay at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 13:41:51 +0530
> To: Sarai <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Selective condemnation of rape and murder has
> become bane of J&K politics
> 
> Thanks, Sonia

Thanks for alerting me to the existence of Early Times which I
> had
somehow missed.
The link to AA Fayyaz's March 20th story is
> here
http://www.earlytimes.in/newsdet.aspx?q=51425

However, both the Indian
> Express story (forwarded by you today) as
well as this Early Times report
> don't easily lend themselves to a
reading of rape. (Although there does seem
> to be considerable sleaze
in the story...)

For others on this list, I quote a
> paragraph from A A Fayyaz's story:

"The video clip, now in circulation in the
> capital city and entire
south Kashmir, shows Dr Sofi committing the sexual act
> on a pretty
young woman who enters a room and takes off her trousers. Entire
> act,
in which both the characters are clearly identifiable, takes place on
a
> bed, reportedly in a room of the CMO's office. However, some people
suspect it
> to be Dr Sofi's clinic in Pulwama. The woman, wearing an
embroidered pink
> colour Pheran and Shalwar, and half of burqa on her
head (which is fully
> lifted from the front) does not pose any
resistance but does not offer any
> smiles either. Legal experts insist
that sexual exploitation of females on the
> promise of rewarding them
with a government job was very much rape and the
> accused was supposed
to be booked for rape.
In three days of investigation,
> Police have identified the woman as an
unemployed nurse of Balpora village of
> Shopian district. However, she
had neither been called nor questioned in
> custody or otherwise till
late tonight."

>From this, it does seem a bit early
> to put this incident on par with
the Shopian rape and murder, don't you
> think?

Meanwhile I sincerely look forward to your reading of the Shopian
> incident.
(Then I won't need to interpret your comments, and risk getting them
> wrong!)

Best

Sanjay Kak

2010/4/1 S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>:
>
>
> From Indian Express
> Print Story
> Seen in sex clip, Shopian case CMO
> suspended
>
> Bashaarat Masood
> Posted online: March 21, 2010 at 0217
>
> The
> Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday suspended Pulwama Chief Medical
>
> Officer Dr Ghulam Qadir, already chargesheeted by the CBI for fabricating>
> evidence in the Shopian case, after footage of him having sex with a woman
>
> in a clinic became public on Friday.
> “We watched the clip and the man in the
> video resembles Dr Qadir,” said SSP
> Kifayat Haider.
>
> “It seems that the
> clip was shot last summer and shows the doctor having sex
> with a woman in a
> clinic-like room. We are investigating the case,” he
> added. The CMO Qadir
> has since been booked. The police are also looking for
> the people who shot
> and distributed the video.
>
> “The matter is serious and we have placed the
> doctor under suspension,”
> Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma said, adding that
> an independent inquiry had
> been initiated.
>
> Dr Qadir was among the
> persons chargesheeted by CBI in the Shopian case in
> relation to the death of
> 22-year-old Neelofar Jan and her 17-year-old
> sister-in-law Asiya Jan that
> led to massive protests across the Kashmir
> valley.
>
> The CMO and 12 other
> persons were charged with fabricating and destroying
> evidence.
>
>
>> From:
> Sanjay Kak <kaksanjay at gmail.com>
>> Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 11:32:58 +0530
>>
> To: Sarai <reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Selective
> condemnation of rape and murder has
>> become bane of J&K politics
>>
>>
> Sonia,
> Where is this piece from? It usually helps to source such
>>
> incendiary
> writing, since the net is a place awash with propaganda and
>>
> psy-ops.
> (Sly ops?) Of course Mr Ahmed Ali Fayyaz is a senior
>> Kashmiri
>
> journalist-in fact he is widely regarded as the Praveen Swami
>> of
> Kashmiri
> journalism, and that is no small compliment to both.
> About the
>> piece: he
> has devoted considerable space to last years
> events around the
>> Shopian
> rape and murder, but the rhetorical use to
> which he puts it overwhelms
>>
> the details of this more recent event. One
> misses a straight forward
> rendering
>> of what has actually happened in
> Pulwama. This is important
> because the
>> mainstream media (including the
> vast Indian Express bureau)
> seem to have
>> missed the importance of this
> incident.
> For me A A
> Fayyaz's sentence "Second
>> one has been purportedly shot on
> camera and the
> actor stands not only
>> identified but also placed under
> suspension,
> arrested and jailed" is quite
>> loaded. I would imagine that
> most serious
> journalists would want to tarry for
>> a moment on the
> "purportedly shot on
> camera", and ask the who/how of this
>> piece of
> evidence. A rape shot on
> camera? By whom? The fact that he has
>> been
> placed under suspension,
> arrested and jailed is not evidentiary. This
> is
>> Kashmir we are talking
> about, after all.
> Whatever its journalistic failings
>> the piece
> inadvertantly still draws
> attention to some important questions: why
>> is
> there such a huge trust
> deficit between the men in Olive Green/Khakhi and
>>
> the people of
> Kashmir? Why did the people of Shopian go on a 42 day
> hartal
>> last
> year? To suggest that it was only because they were misled
>>
> by
> self-serving politicians of the PDP and NC is to display an
>
> astonishing
>> lack of regard for facts: the Majlis-e-Mashawarat, which
> led
> the hartal and
>> the ongoing struggle, had made it clear that no
> political
> parties were welcome
>> in town, and they managed to keep the
> issue quite
> distinct ?from "Separatist"
>> politics as well.
> I think think a journalist
> of A A Fayyaz's stature would
>> have done
> well to find out what were the
> pressures that made Dr Nighat
>> change
> her statement (whether or not she
> swore on the Qur'an). Then perhaps
> he
>> would be led to the circumstances
> that led to the other Dr Un-named
> being
>> "purportedly shot on camera".
>
> Lastly, am I the only one who reads some
>> condescension in your comment
>
> that "this group of well-meaning women are not
>> the first to get misled
>
> with half-facts and half-truths in Kashmir". Perhaps
>> it would be
> better
> if there was a concrete critique of the report of
>> the
> Independent
> Initiative, or their findings and conclusions. When you
> say
>> "the Shopian
> case was an extremely complicated case, which was
> manipulated and
>>
> presented to the world as fact", is there an
> alternative reading that you
>>
> would share with us, or guide us to?
>
> Best
>
> Sanjay Kak
>
> On Wed, Mar
> 31, 2010
>> at 7:47 PM, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
> Kshmendra, it is
>> unfair to condemn them as such. ?The Shopian case was
> an
>> extremely
>> complicated case, which was manipulated and presented to
> the world
>> as fact.
>> Sadly, this group of well-meaning women are not the
> first to get
>> misled with
>> half-facts and half-truths in Kashmir. ?I think
> the admission by
>> Dr.Nighat
>> last year of forging the vaginal samples
> genuinely shocked many
>> people in
>> Kashmir-- after all she had sworn upon
> the Qur'an. ?That coupled
>> with the 2
>> cases of murder in Maisuma (where
> near riots had broken out as
>> people had
>> initially suspected the security
> forces) will, hopefully cause
>> some
>> introspection. ?Ahmed Ali Fayyaz's
> article is a move in that direction.
>>
>> --sj
>>
>>
>> From: Kshmendra Kaul
> <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
>> Date: Wed, 31 Mar
>> 2010 06:37:29 -0700 (PDT)
>>
> To: "S. Jabbar" <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
>> Cc:
>> sarai list
> <reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Selective
>>
> condemnation of rape and murder has
>> become bane of J&K politics
>>
>>
>>
> Continuing the question (it is a continual one where incidents and
>>
>>
> characters change):
>>
>> Where today are the Miss Marples, the whodunit
>>
> experts, the Umas
>> (Chakravarty), Ushas (Ramanathan), Seemas (Misra),
> Vrindas
>> (Grover), Dr.
>> Ajitas, Anuradhas (Bhasin Jamwal), those members
> of
>> "Independent Women's
>> Initiative for Justice" and authors of
> "Shopian:
>> Manufacturing a Suitable
>> Story"
>>
>> Kshmendra
>>
>>
>> ---
> On Wed, 3/31/10, S.
>> Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> From: S.
> Jabbar
>> <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: [Reader-list] Selective
> condemnation of
>> rape and murder has become
>>> bane of J&K politics
>>> To:
> "Sarai"
>> <reader-list at sarai.net>
>>> Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 5:22
> PM
>>>
>>> RAPE
>> OF POLITICS
>>>
>>> ....and where are those Mehboobas,
> Shameemas, Asiyas
>> today?
>>>
>>> Selective condemnation of rape and murder
> has become bane of J&K
>> politics
>>>
>>> Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
>>>
>>> JAMMU, Mar
> 30: Hullabaloo over then
>> widely perceived rape-cum-murder of two
>>> young
> woman, married Neelofar Jan
>> and unmarried Asiya Jan, of Shopian in May
>>>
> last year was understandable as
>> well as justifiable. Jostling for the
>>>
> limelight, female politicians of all
>> hues had done whatever possible to
>>>
> undercut one another in the race of
>> smudging the men in uniform. There
> were
>>> initially efforts to involve the
>> Balpora-based formation of
> Rashtriya
>>> Rifles. Soon the campaign was
>> downgraded to a unit of Central
> Reserve Police
>>> Force (CRPF). But once both
>> proved to be the hard nuts,
> convenience zeroed
>>> in on Police. Even as two of
>> the Police personnel,
> detained for their
>>> alleged involvement in destroying
>> the evidences,
> were just a vegetarian
>>> target, counter-insurgency profile of
>> then SP
> and Dy SP of Shopian made it a
>>> perfect case for a mass
>>
> movement.
>>>
>>> For weeks together, Kashmir was yet again in flames.
> Eight
>> people got
>>> killed, and around 1,000 sustained injuries in clashes
> with
>> Police and armed
>>> forces. Over a thousand vehicles, including 50
> ambulances
>> of different
>>> hospitals in the Valley, were damaged in stone
> pelting. There
>> was shutdown
>>> after shutdown for four months. Damage
> caused to the Kashmir
>> economy is
>>> estimated to be in hundreds of Crores
> of Rupees. Loss suffered
>> by the
>>> student community remained
> incalculable. Why all that? Obviously
>> because
>>> government officials,
> supposed to protect the honour and life of
>> women, were
>>> perceived to be
> involved in the sinister act of outraging the
>> modesty of the
>>> victims
> and doing away with them.
>>>
>>> Within months, yet
>> another government
> official---this time a doctor on whose
>>> evidence stood
>> the
> ³rape-cum-murder² of the Shopian duo---has been found to
>>> have outraged
>>
> the chastity of a hapless woman at his clinic at the nearby
>>> district
>>
> headquarters of Pulwama. There are few differences between the two.
>>>
> First
>> one was fully based on surmise, speculation and perception. Post
>>>
> mortem
>> reports of two teams of doctors made it an explosive case of
> gang
>>> rape and
>> murder. Actors need not to be searched in such kind of
> incidents in
>>> the
>> strife torn Valley. Second one has been purportedly
> shot on camera and
>>> the
>> actor stands not only identified but also placed
> under suspension,
>>> arrested
>> and jailed.
>>>
>>> In case of Shopian, the
> victims were found to have died
>> once. In case of
>>> Pulwama, the victim
> has been left to die a hundred times
>> every day as long
>>> as she lives.
> The latest revelation is that she happens
>> to be the mother of
>>> a girl
> doing first year of her MBBS and a 17-year-old
>> son who is in class
>>>
> 11th. Shopian happened by night in a nullah and Pulwama
>> in broad
> daylight
>>> during the holy month of Ramazan, at a property owned by
>> a
> religious trust.
>>> Then, why an uproar on Shopian and a silence of
>>
> convenience on Pulwama? The
>>> biggest poser of the cruel times in Kashmir:
> Is
>> it the outfits of an actor
>>> that categorizes rapes in the Valley? Had
> the
>> Pulwama actor been in Khaki,
>>> would the Kashmiri politicians have
> maintained
>> this silence. The questions
>>> ahead: Are the Kashmiri female
> politicians
>> concerned over the outrage of the
>>> modesty of hapless women
> by government
>> officials or are they exploiting such
>>> incidents
> selectively to create space
>> for themselves in the politics of
>>> deceit
> and camouflage that has had a
>> bullish market from New Delhi to
>>>
> Islamabad?
>>>
>>> PDP President, Mehbooba
>> Mufti, and the pro-Pakistan
> Dukhataraan-e-Millat
>>> supremo, Asiya Andrabi,
>> stole the show in Shopian
> as they left no stone
>>> unturned in berating the
>> men in uniform. That was
> understandable for one was
>>> the queen of the
>> mainstream opposition and
> another indisputably the highest
>>> profile female
>> political activist in
> the separatist camp. But the ruling
>>> National
>> Conference¹s MLA, Shameema
> Firdaus, appeared to outsmart all and
>>> sundry in
>> the agitation when she
> led a procession of workers on Residency
>>> Road in
>> Srinagar, chanting
> slogans against the Shopian rapists and killers
>>> and
>> demanding exemplary
> punishment for them all.
>>>
>>> Of late, Shameema Firdaus,
>> has been
> appointed by Omar Abdullah government as
>>> the Chairperson of the
>> State
> Women¹s Commission. While Asiya and her ilk in
>>> the separatist camp
>> must
> have now realized the dangers of walking into the
>>> trap of pro-India
>>
> politicians, PDP chief has never been sighted in Assembly
>>> since the day
>>
> Pulwama surfaced on March 21. Ms Firdaus remained in
>>> attendance but did
> not
>> utter a word of condemnation even when the
>>> independent MLA from
> Langet,
>> Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid, raised his lonely
>>> voice on the
> floor of the
>> House and demanded termination of the doctor¹s
>>>
> services.
>>>
>>> Until
>> yesterday, the big question was: How could the two
> women have drowned
>>> to
>> death in ³ankle deep waters² of Rambiara ? After
> CBI exonerated all the>>
>> four Policemen and filed a chargesheet against 13
> persons, including six
>>>
>> doctors---notably then deputy Chief Medical
> Officer (CMO) Dr Ghulam Qadir>>
>> Sofi, now booked for raping a woman at his
> clinic---a bigger question
>>>
>> surfaced: How do the gang rapes in Valley
> take place while leaving hymen of
>>>
>> an unmarried woman intact? Now a far
> bigger question: Is it all politics on
>>>
>> rape or rape of politics---to
> spare the rapists in civvies and target only
>>>
>> the rapists in
> uniform?
>>> _________________________________________
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