Hundreds of rape victims in J&K wait for justice

SRINAGAR: On Monday when a division bench of the high court directed the state government to file a status report on the steps it has taken for implementing apex court directions on eve teasing and sexual harassment, a middle aged woman was abducted and grang-raped by two men in a minibus in Jammu. As the state government continues having unrest-management and development as its main priority, fighting crimes against women is apparently at the backburner.

As Delhi’s brutal gang rape in Delhi sent thousands protesting on the roads, Kashmir is witnessing a gradual movement against these crimes that were reported, registered and apparently forgotten. There were a series of protests in last few days. Even the separatist leaders reacted to the crime and linked the grim Kashmir scenario to it.

“The Delhi gang rape was shameful and inhuman,” separatist hawk Syed Ali Geelani said. “The criminals should be stoned to death.” Terming the victim as “our daughter”, Geelani asked why Indian society sat silent when Kashmiri women were raped by soldiers. He believes there were 7000 cases of molestations and rapes against the counter-insurgency grid.

Apart from cases of sexploitation involving security grid, there are 1336 rape cases which police registered since 2006. Some of these cases involve victims as young as 18, even below. Available official statistics suggest there has been only one conviction in last five years. Tragically, last time when the police was asked by the state legislature to offer details of the rape cases and the actions taken, the police released the names and addresses of all the rape victims across the state.

The failure of the established systems to follow the established law has led a Jammu lawyer to file a PIL seeking details of the steps that state government has initiated in implementing the apex court directions of harassment and exploitation issued on November 30, 2012. For the last many months, the state police are unable to arrest a person who has been recruiting girls from weaker sections as employees of his security providing company and gradually pushing them into soft leather trade. As the police wanted to arrest him, he managed to get a stay from the court pre-empting his arrest.