The attempts to intimidate and drive out a nomadic community from their village has exposed the horrors faced by Muslims in India, where supporters of Hindu groups continue to be emboldened by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Moazum Mohammad reports from the Pir Panchal mountains in the Indian-administered Kashmir.
s the sun emerged from a thick cloud over the lush green peaks in Pir Panchal on a recent morning, Naseema removed the blue tarpaulin sheet from the tent they’d been sleeping in. The mountains have been home to her and Mohammad Yusuf Pujawala, her husband, for the last few weeks. The couple, along with dozens of other families from the Bakarwal community, takes a grueling two-day trek to come to these mountains every year from Kathua, a village on the banks of the Khad, about 55 miles from the state’s winter capital of Jammu. This year, they were forced to arrive here earlier.
“This time we came early because of threats from Hindus in our village,” says Pujawala. Nearly 87 percent of Kathua’s population is Hindu, who dominate the businesses and own almost all of the land in the district. Bakarwals, the Muslim nomads who for centuries have traveled with their livestock between the mountain pastures in the summer and lowland grazing grounds in the winter, are the third largest ethnic tribe in the region—about 60,724 people, according to 2011 survey by the Indian government.
On January 10, Naseema and Pujawala’s eight-year-old daughter went missing from a neighboring village. Seven days later, authorities found her body in Rasana, a village in Kathua—she had been raped and murdered. Since then, eight men, including the custodian of a local Hindu temple, have been arrested in the case. (Indian law prohibits identifying a rape victim by name even after they have died.)
The incident has sparked outrage in the region and across the country, especially following protests in support of the detained men, led by outfits like the Hindu Ekta Manch, whose members have ties to both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the Indian National Congress.
Police in the state of Jammu & Kashmir said the motivation behind the gruesome rape and murder was to terrorize and dislodge the Bakarwals from Kathua, and the man at the center of the conspiracy was Sanji Ram, the custodian of the local temple. Police officials have also said that Ram had been discouraging Hindus in Kathua from providing land to the Bakarwals for grazing their cattle.
“We didn’t know he was living next to us,” Naseema says about the Hindu priest. “If I knew, I wouldn’t have allowed my daughter to go to Rasana.”
Jammu & Kashmir police say the girl had walked to the nearby village that day to inquire about her horses. According to the charge sheet filed by authorities, that’s when the priest’s nephew signaled her to the forests, claiming he had seen her horses. Local investigators said she was then kidnapped, drugged, and held inside the Devisthan temple, where the men took turns and raped her.
“My daughter loved horses, and she would play with them,” Naseema says, pointing to a big stone a few yards away which she said her daughter used to jump on the horseback.
In a 15-page document, investigators describe in sordid detail what happened to the girl in January. The eight-year-old was held without food, given sedatives, and subsequently raped. Minutes before she was murdered, one of the accused men told the priest’s teenage nephew—he is a minor and is being tried under a separate law for minors—to wait so that he could rape her one last time. Then, according to police, the two of them raped the little girl again before strangling her with her scarf and hitting on her head with a stone.
“I can’t believe how brutal they were,” Naseema says. “Hindus would harass and abuse us when our herd would graze on their farmlands, but we never expected they would drug our daughter and rape her.”
When the parents went out looking for the girl on January 10, Naseema said they ran into Ram, the priest, who told them to go back home.“Your daughter is having roti somewhere, and you will find her,” Naseema says he told them that evening.
Mother of the rape victim migrated to the Pir Panchal mountains few weeks ago.
Life has always been filled with hardships for Kashmir’s Bakarwals, but Naseema said this year has been “the toughest and the saddest” because of the tragedy that befell them. “There is no end to the loss,” she says. Three of their children and Pujawala’s mother were killed in a road accident in the mountains eight years ago. After the accident, the family adopted the girl from Pujawala’s sister when she was only two months old.
Pujawala said they had plans to admit their daughter to school this year and were looking forward to seeing her in a uniform. Her family and relatives in the Bakarwal community remember her as talkative—“chirpy like a bird”—and a clever girl who was always happy whenever she went go to the meadows with the animals.
“She loved trekking along these mountains,” Naseema says. “She would sit on a horse and keep watch on the herd.”
The family was supposed to attend the court hearings on their daughter’s rape case in the following days, but Naseema didn’t know if they could make it.
“How can we attend the hearings?” Naseema shouts. “Who is going to look after the herd?”
For generations, Bakarwals have trekked hundreds of miles every year herding and grazing their goats, sheep, cows, and horses. Many of them say their lives would cease to exist without the animals because they are the only source of their livelihood. “For us, these goats and sheep are as dear as our children,” says Pujawala.” “I climb mountains so that our herd doesn’t die from hunger. We may not eat, but will do everything we can to protect them.”
1. Nomad families of the Bakarwal community cross a snow-fed stream in Kashmir. 2. A nomad sits outside his mud house in outskirts of Srinagar.
Pujawala says his community had been tolerating the harassment and intimidation from Hindu villagers in Kathua for years. But in the aftermath of their daughter’s rape, members of the Hindu Ekta Manch have turned hostile towards Muslim families in the village. “We are four to five nomadic families in the village,” Pujawala says, “but the Hindus accused us of occupying their lands and conspired to throw us out.” Pujawala says Hindus in the village also regularly accuse them of “smuggling” cattle—illegally transporting cows for slaughter.
Last year in April, a Bakarwal family that was traveling with their cows was attacked by a mob of Hindu men in Jammu. About 150 men beat the Bakarwals with iron rods and sticks and burned down the local police post. When the police arrested 11 Hindu men involved in the attack, local groups called for a strike to force their release.
The attack was one of the many taking place across the country, as hardline Hindus formed vigilantism groups calling themselves Gau Rakshak—“Cow Protector”—and targeted Muslims and Dalits for possessing beef or transporting cattle for slaughter from one state to another. Reports of attacks on Muslims by cow vigilantism groups have grown since the election of BJP leader Narendra Modi—97 percent of the cow-related attacks from 2010 to 2017 took place after Modi’s election in 2014, according to a content analysis of the English media in India by Indiaspend.
“When Bakarwals go to mountains, they accuse us of smuggling cows.”
Talib Hussain, a Bakarwal lawyer and activist who has been rallying for justice in the Kathua rape and murder case, said members of right-wing Hindu outfits have been attacking Bakarwals during migration between Jammu and Pir Panchal mountains.
“When Bakarwals go to mountains, they accuse us of smuggling cows,” says Hussain, adding that Hindu right-wing groups like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, are systematically harassing and threatening Muslim nomad communities in Kashmir.
Chaudhary Abdul Hamid, a representative of the Bakarwal community, said the Bakarwals and the Gujjars—another ethnic Muslim community—have been living in fear following the rise in violent attacks by Hindu groups. “The Bakarwals receive permission for transporting cows during migration from one place to another, but they are still being targeted by Hindus,” says Chaudhary.
Two years ago, a BJP minister threatened a delegation of Gujjar farmers by reminding them of the 1947 massacre of Muslims in Jammu & Kashmir region. He was also among the two BJP ministers who addressed the Hindu Ekta Manch rally in support of those accused of raping the Kathua girl. Since BJP came to power in the region three years ago, the ministers who oversaw the provincial forest ministry directed to remove encroachments from the forests—a move many nomadic Muslims say was aimed at removing them from the forest land.
For the Bakarwals, who earn their livelihood by selling sheep and goats, shrinking grazing lands and increasing restrictions from Hindu villagers and vigilante groups is adding growing apprehension.
“The forests are being closed for Bakarwals,” said Hussain, the Bakarwal lawyer, who last year led a caravan of livestock to the region’s highest office to demand right to the forest for the nomad community. The BJP has opposed implementing the law to guarantee the rights to members of the region’s tribal community, arguing that the laws enforced by the parliament cannot be extended to the disputed territory.
“Our issue is with grazing rights and right to life, but the RSS and BJP don’t want the law to be applied here because it involves Muslim nomads,” says Hussain, who has pledged not to wear shoes till the law is not implemented in the region.
The Hindu men accused of raping their daughter are still in prison, and their trial is yet to begin. The Hindu Ekta Manch has started a donation campaign to hire the “best” legal team and file a plea in India’s top court for handing the case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), an agency under the jurisdiction of the BJP government. So far, the court has turned down the plea in previous hearings.
“The crime branch fairly investigated the incident, but the Hindus want to shield the accused men by seeking a CBI investigation,” Pujawala says. “We don’t want that to happen.”
Following the nationwide outrage after a series of rape incidents, including the gang rape of the eight-year-old girl, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi signed an executive order last month introducing the death penalty for anyone found guilty of raping girls below the age of 12. “We want those men who snuffed the life out of a pure soul to be hanged,” Naseema says.
The Bakarwals still have more than five months before their winter migration, when they leave the mountains and head downhill to Kathua. But they are worried about going back to the village. Until now, Pujawala had been using pastures owned by Hindus on lease for grazing his flock. But Bakarwals fear that the Hindus would no longer lease grazing pastures to them even if they were allowed back in the village, especially if the Hindu men are found guilty and sentenced to death.
“I locked my home and abandoned my wheat fields in Kathua out of fear,” Pujawala says. “Usually I would hire a man to take care of fields, but no one was willing to stay on this year.”
After the family retrieved their daughter’s battered body from the village for the funeral, the Bakarwals wanted to bury her in the land they’d purchased a few years ago—and had used it as a graveyard to bury dead people in the past. But Pujawala said a group of Hindu men wielding batons threatened the family and told them they would excavate the girl’s body if she was buried there. So, the Bakarwals walked more than seven miles into another village to bury the girl’s body.
“When they didn’t even let to bury our dead daughter,” Pujawala says, “how can they give us their land to graze animals?”
Evidence against fraudulent marriage & criminal conspiracy since 2004 placed before Trial Court Dwarka Court at New Delhi on 1st Aug 2011 and no criminal punishment to culprit by the Court.
Evidence placed before Trial Court at New Delhi dated 1st Aug 2011
Criminal conspiracy by Mr. S. B. Sinha, Rtd Justice and his associates to kill me and my ailing mother in the similar fashion as his associates had killed my diabetic above the knee amputee father in 2007 to usurp my parental property in Bihar as I am left with only one member in my family now i.e. ailing 70 year old ailing mother
Petition dated 11.05.2016 before Hon'ble President of India PRIOR to Writ Petition (Criminal) 136 of 2016 before Supreme Court of India against Judicial Magistrate, Begusarai Bihar. More details: https://www.slideshare.net/OmPrakashPoddar/petition-before-honble-president-of-india-dated-11052016 Petition before President of India dated 11.05.2016 https://www.slideshare.net/OmPrakashPoddar/petition-before-honble-president-of-india-dated-11052016 Acknowledgement letter dated 16.05.2016 issued by Hon'ble President of India PRIOR to Writ Petition (Criminal) 136 of 2016 before Supreme Court of India against Judicial Magistrate, Begusarai Bihar Acknowledgement letter dated 16.05.2016 issued by Hon'ble President of India
PETITION BEFORE HON'BLE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA WITH A PRAYER TO IMPEACH THE CONCERNED JUDGES FOR ISSUING NON BAIL ABLE WARRANT (N. B. W) DATED 08TH SEPT 2011 UNDER SECTION 83 CR.PC. IN CRIMINAL CASE COMPLAINT (P) NO 5591 OF 2013 AT SDJM COURT NO. 16 BEGUSARAI BIHAR AND KEEPING IT SECRET SINCE THEN EVEN AFTER THE ON RECORD INTIMATION TO THE CJM DIVISION BEGUSARAI IN THE SAME MATTER CRIMINAL CASE COMPLAINT (P) NO. 9P OF 2010 DATED 03RD MARCH 2011 AND AFTER THE SETTLEMENT OF THE SAME MATTER BY THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI IN MATT APPL 7 OF 2012 ON 23RD JULY 2013. WE ARE LIVING AS REFUGEE IN DELHI BECAUSE OF FORCED DISLOCATION BY THE STATE.THE PETITION WITHOUT SOFT COPY OF ANNEXURES AS HARD COPY OF SAME ANNEXURES FROM P 1 TO P 18 HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED BEFORE HON'BLE PRESIDENT OF INDIA WITH THE PETITION Sl. No. P1/ B/ 0108170053 ON 27TH JULY 2017
NO TIMELY ACTION AGAINST COMPLAINTS LEADING IN INCREASING THE VOLUME OF CASES BEFORE INDIAN COURTS. HENCE RUNNING THEIR SHOPS; ENJOYING GOVERNMENT BENEFITS+LUXURY & VICTIMIZING INNOCENT CITIZENS President of India had forwarded Complaint vide PRSEC/E/2016/06805 dated 10.05.2016 to the Registrar General Patna High Court on 08.06.2016 prior to Writ Petition (Criminal) 136 of 2016 before Supreme Court of India President of India forwarded complaint to Registrar General Patna High court on 08.06.2016
Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti has strongly condemned the killing of three civilians during the past 24 hours in various parts of the Kashmir Valley.
In a statement, the Chief Minister said she has often said that with the killing of civilians nobody's interests are served but we are plunging the State into uncertainty and chaos.
In occupied Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) has paid glorious tributes to Shaheed-e-Azemat , Sheikh Abdul Aziz ahead of his 10th martyrdom anniversary.
A DFP spokesperson in a statement issued in Srinagar said the number of martyrs is increasing with each passing day. He said martyrs by rising above fear and greed have taught a lesson that one should prefer death with honour than life with dishonour.
Paying tributes to Shaheed -e-Azemat Sheikh Abdul Aziz and all other Kashmiri martyrs, the spokesperson said the struggle for right to self-determination will continue till peaceful resolution of Kashmir dispute. “Kashmir is a political issue and needs to be resolved in a political way,” he added.
He also expressed grief over the loss of lives and properties across the valley in last few days and said until Kashmir is not resolved, this bloodshed will continue.
Hurriyat leader, Imtiyaz Ahmad Reshi addressing a function in Srinagar in connection with the 9th martyrdom death anniversary of Shaheed -e- Azemat Sheikh Abdul Aziz, said that the 2008 agitation was the turning point towards Kashmir dispute when people of all walks of life took to streets and it was a referendum towards India’s illegal occupation and economic blockade.
He said Kashmir issue has entered a final stage and it is need of the hour to show unity among the ranks .of Hurriyat leadership.
He said solidarity will be expressed with martyrs of Kashmir on the day.
The function was also attended by Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Maqbool, Ghulam Muhammad Mir, Tahoor Sidiqi, Advocate Abdul Ahad Qadri, Rouf Aasmi, Omer Khalid and Molvi Javaid.
A total of 34 companies in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) have been banned from carrying out any trade activity on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, officials said.
Custodian of cross LoC trade Sagar D Doifode issued a circular to all traders in Jammu and Kashmir directing them not to enter into any export or import business with the 34 blacklisted companies, they said.
The ban has followed joint efforts by authorities of Jammu and Kashmir and PoK to weed out any illegal activity on cross LoC trade routes, the officials said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has found that at least five Indian companies engaged in cross-LoC India-Pakistan trade have links to the Hizbul Mujahideen, as per a report in Times of India.
As part of its probe into the alleged transfer of funds from across the border, used to fuel terror networks, the NIA had been investigating close to 300 companies that were engaged in cross-border trade since 2008. The agency found five companies with dubious transaction records, leading it to further probe them.
The report quoted sources that revealed that 'these companies were engaged in barter trade with Pakistan-based individuals/companies, that were under-invoicing the import of California almonds at trade facilitation centres (TFCs) located at Salamabad and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Jammu and Kashmir. The money acquired by under-invoicing the import, NIA believes, could have been used to fund "terror operations."
Representational image. Getty
Earlier this month, Some arms and ammunition were recovered from a truck engaged in cross-LoC trade in Uri sector of north Kashmir's Baramulla district. The weapons were hidden in a camouflaged cavity of the truck designed particularly for illegal smuggling.
After clothes, California almonds have emerged as the new product in cross-LoC trade in Jammu and Kashmir that are being used as a mode of terror funding.
The NIA has registered a case in this connection and had carried out searches on traders at trade facilitation centres at Salamabad in Kashmir region's North Kashmir's Baramulla district and Chakan-da-bagh in Poonch district of Jammu region.
According to the cross-LoC trade agreement between India and Pakistan, products grown in both sides of Jammu and Kashmir will be exchanged under the barter system. The products included the California almonds, that is grown in parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. During the searches, documents related to exchange of California almonds were seized and are being scrutinised, the NIA said.
The traders from PoK were sending and receiving California almonds and it is alleged that the money was used for funding of terror groups in the state.
"This is in gross violation of the State policy of prohibition on trade in 'third-party origin goods' through this mechanism and information indicated that these funds are being used for fomenting terrorism and separatism in the state of Jammu and Kashmir," the NIA had said.
Exclusive: NIA report claims money raised through LoC trade used to fan support for Islamic State in Kashmir
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in the Kashmir unrest has revealed that the money raised through cross-LoC trade between India and Pakistan was used to fan the support for different militant outfits including the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir.
Representational image. Reuters
The NIA which has tightened the noose around the separatist leaders has also named some more Hurriyat leaders for spreading the unrest in Kashmir. It has named the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) vice chairman, Bashir Ahmad Bhat and president of Salamabad Traders Union, Hilal Turki, for spreading the unrest. Turki, however, said that he can’t talk as he was busy attending a mourning ritual.
NIA spokesman, Alok Mittal, said that the investigating agency was probing the Kashmir unrest and "we are in the process of collecting the evidence to file the charges against people in the Court".
The NIA report, which is based on the disclosure statement of some protected witnesses in the case, has also named some LoC traders including Ghulam Geelani Chhota, 50, of Lal Bazar area of Srinagar and Bashir Ahmad Kullu, 50, for taking an active part in agitations during which IS flags were also waved.
The NIA has also disclosed that it was through the official connivance that the traders were under-valuing their goods at the LoC checking point on the Srinagar-Muzafarbad road and the money that was raised through hawala transactions was paid to stone-pelters as well as the militants in Kashmir. It has noted that one of the traders Raja Zahoor Khan, who runs a shop at Parimpora Fruit Mandi, in Srinagar, would transport the California almonds of higher quantity than was allowed along the Uri-Muzaffarabad road and sell the excess quantity and pass on the money to the separatist leaders.
As per the NIA, while only eight tonnes of goods were allowed at one time from Pakistan to India, Raja would import nine tonnes from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and it was sold to traders in New Delhi. The cost of extra four-five tonnes which was transported on the cross–LoC road in a week was between Rs 20- 25 lakh and since the trade was in barter, the commodities of lesser value were sent to PoK and the money thus raised was used for funding separatist activities in Kashmir.
The report has also noted that separatist leaders have been fuelling the agitation in particular areas. While it states that the JKLF leader Bhat was responsible for ensuring stone pelting in the Civil Lines areas, Hurriyat (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, was doing it through his supporters in the Old City area of downtown. It said that in the highly volatile areas of South Kashmir including the districts of Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian, it was Hurriyat (G) chairman, Syed Ali Geelani, who was responsible for igniting anti-India activities. About Bhat, the report said that he is the "main supporter of JKLF and raises funds" through cross-LoC trade.
Also, the report noted that the some of the LoC traders are running multiple firms and are even visiting UAE to stay in touch with the Pakistani traders. While part of the money was allegedly used by the separatists to invest in real estate business on benami transactions, some of the LoC traders were also running proxy firms.
Hurriyat (G) spokesman, Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar, however, said that the allegations against the separatist leader were baseless and "part of the ploy to defame the Kashmiri freedom struggle".
The report also notes that LoC trader, Raja, has been visiting Dubai in "every six months" and "other than the funds raised by virtue of cross LoC trade" he is continuously getting funds from Pakistan "through hawala channels". "In the year 2013 his bank account in the Jammu and Kashmir bank Parimpora branch was blocked by the bank because of the reflection of huge transactions from Dubai based firms into his account." It has been noted that he also owns two cold storage facilities in Industrial Estate Zainakote as well as three kanals of land at Hyderpora and some other real estate assets.
"JKLF is responsible for distributing money in Civil Line areas of Srinagar for funding stone pelting and demonstrations. Bashir Ahmad Bhat is the main supporter of JKLF and raises funds through Raja Zahoor Khan," the disclosure statement of a protected witness read.
It has also been found that some of the traders whose business turnover ran into crores would regularly meet the separatist leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and JKLF chairman, Yaseen Malik.
Some of the separatist leaders who are already in NIA custody have also been accused of paying the stone-pelters and fanning the pro-freedom sentiment during the funerals of the militants. The NIA investigations were prompted after the agitation in 2016 which was spurred after the killing of top Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander, Burhan Wani. (https://www.firstpost.com/india/exclusive-nia-report-claims-money-raised-through-loc-trade-used-to-fan-support-for-islamic-state-in-kashmir-4389939.html)
I request its not against Hinduism, its against HUMANITY. Hindus are great people, this is the matter of hate only by BJP/Congress. We need to bring ourselves together and create a JAMMU and Kashmir front against hate, discrimination and religion disparity. Hindu Muslim Sikh Christians atheist should come together and fight these people. It's not about religion but about HATE.
"Kathua Rapiest tried to stop grazing rights for Bakerwals"
"Sanji RAM told villagers.Don't let Muslim Shepherds use land"
"Bakerwals don't want land; just forest rights"
" 8 year old Asifa child targeted to drive bakerwals out"
"My parents died in Kashmir Floods; Jammu is my home"
"i speak excelent Dogri; Made all speeches in Gogri"
"Jammu is Home; I visit Kashmir as a tourist"
"As a child my best friends were Hindu"
"I was poor; My hindu friend's mother gifted me shoes"
"Politicians driving wedge between Hindus & Muslims"
" Hindu Ekta Manch was not to protect Hindus but Rapists"
Kathua Rape : "Hindu Ekta Manch Formed After Allegations"
I Hinduism is Great; But why this Name?"
"Why Not A Jammu Ekta Manch?"
"Why Not A Jammu and Kashmir Ekta Manch?"
"Why Not A Hindu-Muslim Manch?"
"Why Not A Secular-Manch?"
"Leders of BJP;Congress,NC,Panthers Party backed Asifa rape-murder accused"
"All parties played local politics in Kathua"
"Where is Kathua MLA; Is he hiding?"
"BJP MLA said the would make victim's families leave village"
"Kathua MLA should come out and explain"
