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

[S. Jabbar]

Dear Junaid,

Has Kashmir become a den of sleaze?  Have I suggested that this is so and
that 'Kashmiris are compulsive liars'? I don't think so.  And if I have, I
think you need to back your accusations with evidence from my posts.

The CMO Pulwama, Dr. Ghulam Qadir's actions can hardly be conflated with the
actions of all Kashmiris, so where is the question of Kashmir becoming a
'den of sex, sleaze and hypocrisy'?  Having said that I still think it is
necessary to examine the actions of this particular gentleman as he was the
man ultimately responsible for collecting the vaginal samples and fudging
them.

I have in my earlier post to Sanjay-- which I am sure you have read--
condemned rapes and murders by men in khaki so I really don't understand
your outrageous attempt to paint me as someone who condones violations in
J&K or anywhere else.

You talk of Kunan Poshpora.  Have you been there?  I doubt it. But I have.
I spent time, I talked to the women in private, away from the gaze of the
men.  And guess what?  I believed them.  And guess what else?  They really
hate being talked about, written about, bandied about by politicians who
don't give a flying F about them and have used them to further their
political agenda.  Guess what else?  The money that was collected in their
name by the men who made the greatest noise about the rapes never got to
them.  And guess what else?  They are still known as 'the raped village' and
girls who were too little at the time of the ghastly incident are still
tormented whenever they leave their village to attend a HS school in a
nearby village-- not by men in khaki, but by their own brethren.

Turning to Shopian.  I have read every report on the case. Have you been to
the Rambiara?  Has anyone determined where exactly the women drowned?  All
that is known is where the bodies were found.  The bodies were found near
the bridge way downstream from the logical point of crossing from their
orchard to their home, both which were upstream.  All people who claimed
they could not have drowned in Rambiara where the bodies were found were
absolutely correct.  However, if you bother to read the testimonies of the
victims' relatives in the Jan Commission Report you will realize that even
that spot was difficult to cross.  Early that morning, when the group saw
some 'clothes' across the nullah, the brother in-law went back some 200
yards, crossed the bridge and then descended to the spot where they found
Niloufer.  When he shouted across the nullah to the men on the other side,
Niloufer's husband, wild with grief, wanted to leap into the nullah and go
straight across.  He was restrained and finally the men went back 200 yards,
crossed the bridge and went down to the other side.  If the water was
'ankle-deep' as everyone claims, the men would have walked across without a
fuss.  Why didn't they?

To date no one who claims there was a rape and murder have been able to
scientifically establish cause of death.  And if you cannot establish cause
of death how can you say whether, it is  homicide, suicide, or death by
accident?  Soon after the incident the state government had announced a
reward of 25 lakh rupees to any information leading to the arrest of the
culprits.  Every man, woman and child was following this case in J&K.  And
yet to date not a single person has come up with any information leading to
the arrest of the culprits.  Every claim when investigated turned out to be
false.

As far as the claim of rape or gang rape: where is the evidence? Everything
that has come out points to the contrary.

As far as your last assertion, I only have one thing to say, and that is, I
don't need to prove 2 women were raped and murdered to underscore how bad it
is in Kashmir to be living under the shadow of so many guns.  I have always
said this and will say it again: India and Pakistan must resolve Kashmir.
The solution must be acceptable to all people and regions of J&K.



> From: Junaid <justjunaid at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 16:56:02 -0400
> To: Sarai <reader-list at sarai.net>, Sanjay Kak <jashneazadifilm at gmail.com>, "S.
> Jabbar" <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Selective condemnation of rape and murder has
> become bane of J&K politic
> 
> Hi Sonia,
> 
> Thank you for sending across a slew of sordid reports suggesting how
> Kashmir has become a den of sex, sleaze, and hypocrisy. Your posts are
> complemented well by Kshmendra Kaul's post which asserts that
> Kashmiris are compulsive liars, and Pawan Durani's forwards that
> underscore how Kashmiris lie about human rights violations by the
> Indian troops. Between the three of you, you have finally nailed the
> true psyche of Kashmiris! But you know since sleaze is something that
> defines the present state of politics in and about Kashmir, the nature
> of what is written about it cannot entirely escape its shadow.
> 
> We have a history of making "noises" about rapes and molestations and
> almost invariably we have been told by the Indian agencies and the
> Indian media that we are wrong. The rape of dozens of women in
> Kunan-Poshpora in Kupwara by the Indian army has been declared a
> fabrication by the Indian govt and its intellegentsia. A number of
> books (authored by pro-establishment people like Manoj Joshi, Tavleen
> Singh etc) and tomes of news-stories have been manufactured to silence
> our "hypocritical" "noise". Press Council of India put a stamp of
> innocence on the Indian army units involved. (Only, we came to know
> later that BG Verghese hadn't even visited the village or talked to
> any victims). But that is too far in the past.
> 
> The reports of sexual abuse and exploitation of underage Kashmiri
> girls by the pro-India politicians, the bureaucrats, and the top
> officers of the paramilitary forces and the police, and the subsequent
> investigations have led to nowhere. CBI didn't particularly prove
> itself to be objective or free from political influence in that case.
> See: 
> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/highcourtnamesstringofvvipsinsexualabusecase
> /226255/
> 
> It is quite understandable that, after all this, the Kashmiri people
> (and the sane people in India who see what CBI did to the Bofors case
> and the Hawala scandal) don't trust its "reports". See:
> http://kashmirprocess.com/news/20100104_GK_Wani.pdf
> 
> So, when you say "Based on the evidence that we have at the (moment) I
> do not believe it was either rape or murder", I would like to know
> what "evidence" are you talking about. What evidence do you have to
> suggest that the two women found dead in knee-deep water were not
> raped and murdered? If you have "evidence" it means you are suggesting
> that the evidence points to an alternative scenario. What is that
> scenario? Unless you are suggesting that both the women happened to
> drown in the rivulet, in which even fish didn't have water enough to
> swim! (Well, that scenario would not need evidence but a miracle... or
> a dopey imagination!)
> 
> I am asking this because it seems you have an opinion on what actually
> happened to the two women. After all, you call it a "tragic death": "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.." You are right about the second part, of course. But the
> question is who speculated on the character of the two women, or cast
> aspersions about the role of Neelofar's husband? Who was most
> interested in showing the women as bad-charactered?
> 
> Have you read these two reports:
> http://www.kashmirprocess.org/reports/shopian/ and
> http://www.kashmirtimes.com/shopian-report.pdf ? But these are
> independent reports. What happened to the findings of the Jan
> Commission? It was a govt report, right? It established rape and
> murder. See http://www.hindu.com/nic/shopian/index.htm
> 
> In reality, even if I accept your (self-appointed) three-member
> bench's unanimous conclusion about Kashmiris as liars, hypocrites, and
> manipulators, don't you think it still keeps pointing to the single
> most important thing about Kashmiri opinion about Indian rule over
> Kashmir: that they don't like it at all. That Indian rule over Kashmir
> has no democratic legitimacy?
> 
> Junaid