Women grps asks justice for Kauser Bi, Ishrat Jehan

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, May 16: Condemning the fake encounters in Gujarat, women groups and human rights activists have demanded that the investigators probing the case should also look into the brutal killings of Kausar Bi and Ishrat Jahan.

''Political forces must not derail the investigations that could well indict the Home Minister and Chief Minister of Gujarat.

The guilty must be punished and justice must be served in order to ensure that no Kausar Bi or Ishrat Jahan is the victim of such crimes - in Gujarat or anywhere else in the country,'' they said They urged the Supreme Court to ensure that investigations unearth the truth about what happened to Kausar Bi and Ishrat Jahan.

In a written statement, over 35 women groups and rights activists have called for turning attention to critical aspects of the crime which do not appear to be finding due place in the public conscience, namely the question of what happened to Kausar Bi and the larger question of the violation of women's rights in the context of this kind of impunity given to officers of the State.

Media reports have pointed out that Ishrat Jehan, the 19-year-old student from Mumbai, shot in Ahmedabad in June 2004 may have been kept in the same farmhouse where Kausar Bi was kept for two days, they informed.

''Why was Kausar kept there for two days, when she was not the criminal under a scanner? Were both Ishrat and Kausar victims of sexual crimes? Why was Kausar Bi's body burnt and buried? We must know,'' they demanded and said that their violation must not go unnoticed and unrecorded.

The investigators in this case, who deserve the highest applause for their work so far, must fill in these vital gaps in information, they demanded.

''Today, hyper-nationalism and hyper-patriotism, coupled with total State impunity and draconian laws are giving free reign to gross human rights violations across the country. Sexual violence against women is becoming a central aspect of such aggression. In Gujarat, the pattern of sexual violence against Muslim women and burning of their bodies seems to have caught on as a workable cover up option. Kausar Bi was also burnt.'' In Chhattisgarh again, hyper-nationalism, is the excuse for a series of fake encounters with adivasis who are dubbed 'naxal sympathisers' or 'sangham members' and killed, their houses burnt, the women raped.

In Kashmir, fake encounters are responsible for scores of dead 'terrorists', as evidenced by the recent cases against the police and Army personnel in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the Northeast too, the Army has been repeatedly indicted for rape, torture and disappearances, they charged, adding that Thangjam Manorama of Manipur was not an isolated case.

They have called upon the National Commission for Women to examine all cases of custodial sexual violence in situations of conflict, like Kashmir, the Northeast and Chhattisgarh, as well as in situations where an atmosphere of complete State impunity prevails, as in Gujarat.

UNI

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