MUFTI PRESSES FOR FASTTRACK TRIAL ON KATHUA
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday requested the chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir high court to form a special fast-track court to try suspects in the brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl that has sparked public outrage across India, as her PDP moved to cover up cracks exposed by the incident in its alliance with the BJP.
When it is formed, the first fasttrack court to try a case in Kashmir would complete the trial in 90 days, home department officials with knowledge of the matter said on condition of anonymity
The J&K government has decided to terminate the services of four cops named as suspects along with four others in the case. Sub-inspector Anand Dutta, head constable Tilak Raj and SPOs Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma were named in the charge sheet filed by the police .
Investigators say the girl from the Bakarwal tribe was kidnapped, held in a temple, drugged, raped and then murdered to scare her community out of the neighbourhood. Her body was found on January 17.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres termed the incident “horrific” and asked Indian authorities to ensure the guilty are brought to justice.
SRINAGAR : Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) is so overwhelmed with the ‘emotional reach out’ of the people of the country and the BJP leadership towards the rape and murder of 8-year-old girl in Kathua that they think that the reconciliation in Kashmir will happen after similar outreach on ‘other wounds’ of the people here on Saturday.
Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti chaired a crucial PDP meet in Srinagar to review the outcome of the past three years of PDP-BJP alliance in the state besides discussing the situation arising in Kashmir after the deaths of civilians during encounters in the Kashmir valley recently. The meeting which was attended by all the senior ministers, MLAs, MLCs of the party also discussed the situation in Jammu following the rape and murder of a Muslim girl from Bakarwal community in Kathua district.
Mufti said that the way the whole country came out seeking justice for the innocent girl has generated a new hope among the people in Jammu and Kashmir which “needs to be built on to recreate an inclusive India”.
“Intolerance and hate are hitting at the country’s core values and posing great threat to the pluralism, the only option for achieving the goals India has set out,” she said in a statement.
Mehbooba said it is time for the entire political class of the country to take note of a great tragedy that has unfolded in Jammu and Kashmir. “There is no scope for delaying any further a meaningful and bold response to what has now developed into a moral, political and humanitarian challenge for this billion plus nation,” she said, adding that Kashmir has already seen almost a generation of youth falling prey to the repeated cycles of violence as the present situation in the state did not arise overnight.