MUSLIMS AND OTHER MINORITIES ARE NOT SAFE
IN INDIA IN PARTICULAR CITIZENS OF OCCUPIED REGIONS SUCH AS PUNJAB KHALISTAN
AND MAQBOOZA KASHMIR: HABIB YOUSAFZAI, KASHMIR DIASPORA ALLIANCE
XCLUSIVE: 'They gang-raped my daughters
in front of my eyes'; Muzaffarnagar riots victims too afraid to report to
police
Tarique Anwar & Khayyam Khan | September 16, 2013
Kanghala/Shamli: Rape and sexual assaults are
the usual phenomenon in almost all cases of communal clashes, and the recent
violence in Muzaffarnagar and
its surrounding areas were no exceptions.
Scores of women, including minor girls, were
raped, gang-raped and sexually assaulted in Lisarh, Lank, Bahawadi, Hasanpur,
Mohammadpur, Baghpat and many other small villages of Muzaffarnagar,
Shamli and Panipat districts of Uttar Pradesh. The rape took place when the
people were leaving their villages to save their lives and honour, say victims.
Thousands of people, who moved out of their native
places fearing for their lives, feel safe and secure in Kairana, Kandhala and
other small towns. They refuse to return to their heartland in despair as they
fear more violence and threat to their life.
Daily Bhaskar reporters
visited the relief camp organised by local residents in Kairana and Kandhala
where they were shocked to learn that women, including young girls, were held
captive for days.
They were allegedly gang-raped by the people belonging
to the Jat community who attacked on their houses and threatened them to leave
the village or face dire consequences.
A mother of three girls says, "Four women of my
family, including my three daughters (age 17, 18 and 21 years), were held
captive by 10-13 rioters and gang-raped in front of me. I was forced to see the
shameful and brutal act.""Two of my daughters have been released and the
other two are still missing", she says.
Their daughters were not the sole victims. Scores of
other women were assaulted, raped, killed and burned to death by the barbarians
who were once their neighbours.Another sixteen-year-old was also became a victim of
rape and sexual assault by the same rioters.She said that she was held captive for about 2 hours
when she was trying to flee the village after rumour spread that they
were about to be attacked by people belonging to other community.The assaulters abducted her and raped her as she was
fleeing her home. The attackers fled the spot when security forces arrived.
Asked if she could recall the name or face of anyone of the
attackers, the girl says that one of the attackers was Rajendra, son of Hari
Kishan- main leader of Khap Panchayat of the Jat community.
She even remembers the horrific words uttered by the assaulters,
“Soni soni ladkiyon ke sindur bhar denge, aur bakiyon ko kaat denge (we will marry the beautiful ones and cut into pieces the
others).”
Another 25-year old victim of sexual assault, from Lisarh village,
claimed that she was gang-raped by 5-7 men on the night of September 8- the day
after a Khap Mahapanchayat was held at Nagla Mandaur on September 7.
She identifies two of her assaulters as Subhash, son of Ilamnd and
Ankit, son of Daria.She alleges that the head of her village, Ajit was behind the
entire tragedy. He ensured them security and asked them not to leave the
village. But as the night descended, he asked his men to attack them.Helpless and tormented they ran to police for protection. "Police
thane wale ne kaha ki hum to apne ki sahayta karenge, tum Musalmano ki nahi (We will only save and help our people (Jat and Hindus), not you
Muslims)," she revealed.
Surprisingly, Shamli District DIG (law and order) Raghubir Lal
told Daily Bhaskar that they are running short of
policemen. “We don’t have sufficient number of officers and constables to
tackle a clash of this nature,” he said.
The DIG's comment raised further questions over the security
preparedness of the state to handle volatile situations.
The story is same for over 1.25 lakh victims lodged in various
relief camps in different district of Western Uttar Pradesh.
The anger against the state administration to control the riots
and sheer negligence of the government has left the victims seething with
anger.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was shown black flags
when he visited the riot-affected villages of Kawal and relief camp in Kandhla
on Sunday.The angry people shouted against the UP chief minister and
complained that Uttar Pradesh is on the verge of being permanently divided on
communal lines, if stern action is not taken against the men who incited the
carnage.
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