Thousands of Indians have joined together to protest against the continuing sexual assaults of women and girls, including eight-year-old Asifa Bano, who was gang-raped and brutally murdered inside a temple in Jammu area of Indian-administrated Kashmir.
Asifa Bano, from Bakerwal Muslim community, was gang-raped in the Kathua district near Jammu. Her case has caused a public outrage amongst India.
According to reports, the young girl was heavily sedated, in a Hindu temple and was gang-raped by atleast three men, over the course of four days. She was strangled, and her body had been found in a forest, located near the temple.
Reports have suggested that Sanji Ram, aged 40, was the main conspirator who incited his nephew to abduct the young girl. The retired revenue official was in charge of the temple, where the girl had been abducted and raped.
Asifa was just a regular girl who loved taking horses for grazing to the forest near her home in Rasana, which is a quiet village of the Kathua district, located in Indian-administrated Kashmir.
She lived on a hill in Udhampur district, nearly 150km north of Rasana. Asifa and her family would camp under the sky with their herd of goats and horses.
The reason Asifa had been picked on by Sanji Ram, who was aware of how often she comes to the forest, was simple, it’s because they wanted to drive the Muslim community out.
Police described Asifa as an “innocent budding flower’ a child of only eight years of age, who being a small kid became a soft target.”
The crime was rooted in a sinister conspiracy to create fear among the Muslim community, forcing them to leave.
Asifa’s, 55-year-old mother, Rafeeza Bano, recalls the horror she saw on her dead daughter’s body. “There were scars on her cheeks,”
She also added that: “Her lips had turned black, and her eyes had bulged out. It was a scary scene for a mother to see,” she said. “She was my youngest child. It was horrific. She had faced a lot of barbarity.”
Her mother now fears for her other daughter, aged 13 as she says: “They did this with an eight-year-old girl, imagine what they can do with a 13-year-old.”
Her father, Mohammed Akhtar aged 45 now has a more damning burden on his shoulder, the elusive justice for his daughter.
He said: “Her face was full of scratches and bites. I never knew they will do this with the child, her milk teeth were yet to fall out.”
It is shocking, that this has happened to an innocent 8-year-old girl. We hope she receives the justice she deserves.
