Srinagar: An eight year old girl Asifa from Kuthua district was abducted, allegedly raped and killed in broad day light. According to the eyewitnesses, she had marks of violence on her body.

After the event, condemnations poured in from every corner of the society. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed outrage, members of the opposition parties in the Legislative Assembly staged walk out. The Gujjar community, to which she belonged, protested, the civil society is enraged and social media is abuzz with the sympathies for Asifa Bano and her family.

The Chief Minister, a few days ago while replying to a question in the Assembly admitted that the crimes against women have gone up in the last year compared to 2016.

As many as 877 cases of abduction of girls and women have been registered last year, in comparison to 775 cases in 2016, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said in a written reply to the question from PDP’s Anjum Fazili in Legislative Assembly.

She further added that 534 persons were arrested in abduction cases last year, while the number of arrests in 2016 were 479.

Notably, a total of 1652 cases of abduction of women and girls have been registered during the last two years.

The Chief Minister said that 3,168 cases of crime against women were registered in the state in 2017, as against 2,915 cases in 2016.

There are questions that need to be answered, as the people of this state have all the right to demand an answer from the government.

Why was police and civil administration not successful in tracing the missing minor for the seven days? Was there a sort of callousness involved from the law enforcement agency?  Are six women police stations, round-the-clock patrolling at certain places enough to curb this menace? No, they are not. 

The police and civil administration should have acknowledged the fact that the abduction of the minor could have sparked communal tension in the locality. The police are at fault, so is the civil administration.

The sympathies, protests and mere condemnation will not provide justice to Asifa or to her family.

Today let us make sure that Asifa  gets Justice and we should not allow this matter to die or get diluted. Let us pursue the move to get the killer of Asifa behind the bars and also to ensure that the culprit gets stringent punishment.

Yesterday it was Zainab, today it is Asifa tomorrow it can be someone else if we will not raise our voice against this barbaric act.

Guest