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

[Junaid]

Dear Sonia,

Shopian case has, from the day it became clear that the two women
hadn't simply drowned, been a game where it seems those responsible
are hell bent on proving that the women were neither sexually
assaulted nor murdered. We have seen over these months not only
attempts at portraying the two women as loose charactered, but also
attacks against those involved in uncovering the truth behind the
incident. Till date one Coordination Committee member has been
assassinated, Neelofer's husband has been publicly assaulted by
policemen, a number of others have been framed. I don't know much
about the ex-CMO Qadir's video. If he has forced someone to have sex
with him, then obviously he needs to be punished. What is curious is
the video. Who was filming the thing? Why? As the pattern of events
that have preceded it go, it is not unwise to be on a lookout for
mal-intent.

It is interesting that the witnesses who appeared before Justice
Muzaffar Jan gave him a different story altogether than what CBI came
up with. Jan pointed out that Asiya's death was caused by a gash on
her forehead. CBI said it was not the reason, but since sand and
phytoplankton from Rambiara were found inside the lungs CBI declared
it a case of drowning. Well clearly since Asiya's and Neelofar's body
were taken out of shallow water the possibility that the water could
have entered her lungs after her death was not even seen as a real
possibility. Intact hymen in one body doesn't rule out rape, right?
But CBI took a very conservative view about it. The line CBI took from
the beginning was to falsify all claims of rape and murder, and for
CBI it was not difficult to do what they had been asked for. In
between, what happened to the AIIMS doctor involved in the exhumation
of the bodies who doubted the CBI report. Praveen IB Swami rubished
him by suggesting that the doctor had been caught plagiarising in 2004
and was therefore not credible! If the doctor wasn't credible, why was
he in the investigation team in the first place?

I have seen Rambiara many times. Even where it joins Vaishav, which is
at its end, it is not deep enough. And generally at the end of May
water in Kashmiri streams is especially low, as some of it gets
diverted to paddy fields. Government did its best to suggest that
there was a sudden cloud burst and water overflowed in the brook. And
IB Swami claimed there was flood that night. I was in a place close to
Shopian around that time, and there had been no rain for days. Where
did the great flood myth come from? Old Testament?

Anycase see photos of Rambi Ara here:
http://www.kashmirprocess.org/reports/shopian/shopian_materials.html
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2525/3751167090_9fe348e660.jpg
Would you have been able to cross it?

Now what you are saying is this:

"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?"

Well, I ask you this question: Why didn't the two women use the bridge
instead of doing a thing that even men (wild with grief) wouldn't do?
If the river was really not crossable why did the women do it? And,
more curiously, why both of them?

That you have been to Kunan-Poshpora (and, no, I haven't been there)
and that the victims are saying (and rightly so) that the politicians
(?) didn't care about them, that they didn't see any money, or that
they face enormous social hardships, does not prove that they were not
raped. It is a great failure of the Kashmiri society not to have
adequately shown solidarity with these women. But where are the
culprits? It is not so difficult to find them, right?

In your earlier post you said this: "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." Whose worldviews and political
interests "on this list" are you talking about? You seem to suggest
that there are some hypocrites who make "noise about things". Well
first of all, most of the time I see absolute garbage posted here on
issues related to Kashmir. (Some posts count dead people in Kashmir in
"Ks"... 16 K instead of 219). Second, I don't think Fayyaz's report is
a sound way to underscore anything. In fact, his reports are doltish
in the least and dark propaganda if you read it carefully enough.


Junaid


On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 10:36 PM, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
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