Minorities

Jammu, Bakerwals, Sangh and the rape and murder of a minor: Full text of Talib Hussain’s speech at JNU 

File Photo

The rape and murder of a Muslim Tribal girl in the Kathua region of Jammu and Kashmir, and the subsequent protests that took shape around the defence of the accused, by citing bias, exposed a rift and malice against the Muslim tribe known as Bakerwals.

Talib Hussain, a Tribal advocate turned Activist has been among the first few people fighting for justice in the case of an 8-year-old girl from Kathua’s rape and murder. He has been holding protests to make people aware of the case and issues of a nomadic Muslim Bakerwal minority community.

A few days ago, he was invited by students to speak at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. At the event, Hussain speaks about the historical background of the Bakerwals, their issues and atrocities they have suffered. He, in detail, describes what all happened at the ground level when the little girl went missing on January 10.

 

Here’s the full text of the speech. A few sentences have been joined, so the writing makes a better sense.

“Was this rape committed just to satisfy their sexual desires or was it a bigger conspiracy? The reason why we want to talk to you is that JNU is a University where voices are raised against operation. We could not inform you much about the situation but you on your own, and better than us, learnt about it.

The day when Asifa’s dead body was found, I had been to her place 2 to 4 days before that. Even though I was there, the things I could not explain well, you people explained them better. So we had to meet you guys because you have to advocate for us.

The kind of situation that is present in Kashmir today, before 1947, such a situation was present in Jammu. The lands were illegally occupied, the people there had no space in the government sector. Then a movement took place. Then 1947 happened.

Even at that time, in 1947 the three districts Jammu, Samba, and Kathua would have MLAs from the Muslim community. Out of 7, five or six would belong to the tribal community. When 1947 happened, in just 2 days, 5 to 7 lakh people were murdered, or escaped to Pakistan or migrated from one place to another.

That is one perspective. Now, the story starts from here: The land that was left i.e., the huge areas that belonged to the people, was named as “custodian” land. Custodian is the position of land in Jammu and Kashmir that may or may not be in other states. I don’t know. The law on custodian is that a custodian (land) cannot be named, transferred, in the name of anybody. I can come to a custodian place, settle there but I cannot name it. I cannot be its owner in the documents.

Samba, R.S Pura, all the border areas, some parts of Akhnoor, Kathuwa’s Tehsil Hiranagar and its surroundings are custodian lands in the majority. I have seen Hindus in India, the most decent among them are the Dogras from Jammu, very decent, very simple people.

But another perspective is that when Jan Sangh was formed, the first founder member belonged to Jammu. Today in India, after Pune, most of its branches are in Jammu.

Even in our tribal community, some people say that they have been residing here since 1947. It is their lack of knowledge (that makes them say that). However, the community has existed even before Jammu and Kashmir would have been named. After 1947, the people who belonged to this community went to Pakistan or were murdered, or died. The community that was left when massacres were taking place, was at Kashmir Mountains.

It was back in movement because, in September, the community reaches the middle – at the centre of Kashmir and Jammu. It is coming back to Jammu at that point in time. Many nomads got to know that massacre is taking place in Jammu so some people stayed in the mountains, some went to Kashmir and survived diverse conditions including starvation. Then gradually things stabilized.

A strange concept has been created that the third largest population in Jammu and Kashmir is that of tribal. And that more than 80% of them are Muslims. But the rumour that has been created is that all the forests in this state are occupied by them.

Now the Nomads who came back, where would they go? The mountains in Jammu are not as high as those in Kashmir, neither are its forests as bigger. There would be some forests, attached to which would be some custodian land. Now the thing is that, who occupied this custodian land? A Nomad would not occupy it. The Hindu community that was living there occupied it.

Now the land was also divided into two: half of it where crops were grown, half of it where trees would grow into a jungle. The land in which crops were grown was useful to those who had occupied the land near it. And the Jungle part of it which consisted of bushes and trees was useless to them. The nomads – Gujjars and Bakarwals, would come and say, ‘give us the forest i.e., its leaves and in return take money from us.’

So the system started after 1947 that some money would be given for the leaves. What happens is that, if I go to, for example, Sadath Bhai’s land and give him 2000 rupees saying that for this much area of yours take this 2000 rupees and I am going. For about 3 and a half months, we stay there, cut the leaves, and graze the animals. And in today’s date in about 2 or 4 days, the movement starts again.

Then comes the season to go to Kashmir. So an understanding develops that when we go to Kashmir, our women (peel off the bark of nut trees). In Kashmir, peeling the bark of a nut tree is not allowed. If anyone catches you, you would be beaten and something else can also happen. So our women take out the bark in the night. The bark is used for cleaning the teeth.

The Kashmiri people love nuts. It indeed is a tree to be loved as it feeds you. Nomads would not buy nuts but they have to get some to feed themselves. So the nuts that are there on the trees after the trees are harvested are taken by the nomads or they even take it by asking the owners. So they get the nuts, Beedi (Dantun in Dogri language). The Dogras from Jammu, especially the women wait for it impatiently. They wait for the Bakarwals to come so they can take Dantun from them. If you use Dantun you don’t need makeup for one or two days. It cleans your teeth and your lips continue to be red for around 2 days.

Last time I had come, my sister had given that Dantun to a family (in forests). The friendship developed and we asked them to give us the leaves next time as well. Now 10 or 15 years have passed. And tribes have a principle of their own. For example, if a man’s animals pass over to some other man’s Land, the Bakarwals consider it as his right to ask the person for the leaves of that land. In case the one whose animals have passed over decides not to take the leaves, then the other Bakarwals would approach the owner.

Every year the price of the leaves would increase. Asifa’s Grandfather’s brother had given more than a lakh of rupees for a year. The reason I am using ‘year’ as a term here is that I am a nomad and for us, we consider 6 months as one year. Like if we leave from Jammu after 6 months, we have completed by year because cold is too difficult to handle for us.

So we consider going back to Kashmir as ‘another year.’ So, for three or four months, Asifa’s grandfather’s brother had paid 1,00,000 rupees.

Since Sangh became active in Jammu and Kashmir, the Hindu population was agitated against the Bakerwals.

They were told that they have lost their minds. Although the law says that people who are in Pakistan when they come back they can take the land but for now, nobody can own it. RSS mislead the Hindu populous of the area saying that Bakarwal are Muslims and the custodian land belongs to the Muslims as well, and the Bakarwals come every year. They will occupy this land. So the locality got worried and thought that this may come true.

So the solution according to the RSS was not to allow the Bakarwal Muslim minority to enter the space.

Around 3 to 4 years back, you must have seen on NDTV, Sanji ram Patwari, the mastermind of Asifa’s rape and murder case; who is also the in charge of Devasthan (the temple in Rassana village); makes an entire village to take an oath (against Muslims who they Sarcastically call as Sula when they want to provoke them) that from today no Sula would be provided even a single leaf no matter how many losses one incurs.

The people of Rasana village decided to do that. Rasana village lies on the North of National Highway. A link road connects it with another village known as Koota. A large number of people from there pass through this link road. These people can be nomads or anybody. After the oath was taken, unfortunately, the Rasana people would catch him. “Why did you cross this road?” What happens in winters is that the trees are up high and there are two types of grazing issues that nomads face: Mucharai (an animal goes to the tree of less height and eats its leaves by itself) and that requires the Nomads to cut the leaves that are up high on the branches. After Mucharai phase passes, the cutting phase starts. The animals, especially in February and March, run away as there are no leaves available at their height so they enter the fields of other people in search of food. From past 3 years, in case the animal would go to the Rasana village, it would not come back.

Another village near Rasana is Baniyada. It is a Brahmin majority village. I have passed my 2nd, 3rd and fourth standard from the same village. My mother and all the women in our nomadic community would take the name of Sanji Patwari to scare the other women. If you have to scare a woman, take the name of Sanji Patwari. Which Sanji Patwari? The one involved in Asifa’s rape and murder case. This is the story (of the time) when I would be in the 2nd standard. He would be Patwari then. Now he retired as a Naib Tehsildar.

Coming back to the present, on January 10, Asifa disappears.

How she disappears is: this is Rasana and at its back is a forest that does not come under the jurisdiction of Rasana village. In writing, Rasana village is written but the ownership belongs to people of Tootamore village who by caste are Rajput. They had sold the land to the nomads 7 years ago. It was sold to Asifas maternal uncle. The photos that you have been seeing on the social media are that of her maternal uncle and maternal aunt. Her real mother and father belong to Samba. Her maternal uncle had no daughter and had 2 sons. A son and daughter had died in an accident. So they had no daughter and to nomads, girls are important as they help in cooking or taking milk from the animals, taking care of the horses. From past 4 to 5 years, Asifa had stayed with her uncle. She would spend most of a time with the horses.

They were constructing a home but after 3 months they leave it as it is and leave the place. When Asifa goes with the horses, at 3:30 p.m., Dina named woman who is a Brahmin lady from Rasana village sees Asifa. She had spoken to her in Dogri language. Asifa had asked her whether she had seen her horses or not. Dina aunty tells her that she has not seen her horses and while she is saying that she sees that a boy named Shubham Singha, who was made a Juvenile in the beginning but later it was known that he was not a juvenile; and Deepak Khajuria, who Hindu Ekta Manch was claiming to be innocent, were standing together.

The two men had asked Asifa, “Are your horses lost?” She had affirmed. They had told her that they had seen her horses at the other side of the forest. (I am referring to the link road.)

She goes down in the forest and disappears.

On January 11, Asifa’s family goes to the police station in Hiranagar. For a night they and their relatives look for her by themselves. Then they went to the police station and said that their child was lost.

Standing in JNU, I don’t find it reasonable to state what Supreme Court has said about the registration of FIR. Anyway, the Munshi and the SHO of the police station had told her uncle, “Chaudhary Sahab, don’t worry too much. This is a government job. It will take a little time. Come a day after tomorrow.” Nomads are called as Choudhary.

So they have to go on January 13 again. On January 12, when they become hopeless as to who they approach for help, they again go to the police station and SP Kathua gets to know about it. The SSP asks them to register an FIR.

After the FIR had been registered, a man appears. The man belongs to another village Damiyal that lies in East of the Rasana village. His name is Deepak Khajuria.

He comes and asks in Dogri, “yeah, what’s the matter?” They reply, “Our daughter is lost.” He says, “You guys fight in between yourselves. you must have done something. this happens in your community.” They had replied, “No sir it’s not like that. Even if we are fighting why would we drag a little get into it.” Khajuria says, “Ok don’t worry” the SHO says, “ Deepu ( Deepak Khajuria), take one more guy with you and take them also along with you and go and search for her.”

On January 12, Deepak along with one policemen go with the group of nomads and look for Asifa in the forests. Among the nomads, one gathers the courage and asks why they are looking in the forest. ‘It’s not a goat that it would be found in a forest. It’s a kid and there’s a village over there. Please go and check. Deepu abuses them and asks them what they meant by this. “Are you blaming us? Are we involved in this?”

And he abuses them. They remain silent. This is what Deepu does on January 12. And it’s over.   

On January 17, Asifa’s dead body is found. The place from where the dead body was found, on January 16, the search team had already visited that place. The dead body was not there at that time. The place was ok at that time. On 17th, the dead body was found in the morning.

One thing I would want to tell you when Rasana villagers decided not to give leaves to the Muslim Bakarwal minority community, they would have incurred losses. So they had decided to give the leaves to Gadis. Gadi is a tribe in Jammu and Kashmir that by caste is Rajput as well as Brahmin and is Hindu by religion. Their shelter was at a place in Rasana village.

In the morning a Gadi comes, before 7 a.m, to the place of Asifa’s maternal uncle Mohammad Yousuf. He checks and sees that Yousuf is not at home. He enquires in Dogri, a language they speak well and got to know that he had gone to graze the animals. Nasima, maternal aunt of Asifa had asked why he was asking about him and he had replied that some of his animals have also gotten lost and he was anxious about it. He goes back and calls after 45 minutes saying that ‘I was looking for my Sheep and saw your daughter’s dead body.’

All these people go there and see the dead body and call the police again, saying that ‘we have found the dead body. You please come.’ Police come and take the dead body to Kathua district hospital. Till then we reach there. We sit in for a protest asking them to arrest the accused in 24 hours. Certain things got revealed.

While they were getting her dead body, who had asked them to stop near a place so we could do something. the place where we had gathered, Deepu also reaches there and the charge is better known as. asking why we had gathered there and what our plan was. I had not even said that we were protesting and he started saying that we were going to protest. he started chasing them away.

The morning the dead body was found, two kids were running towards the dead body and the Deepu comes and asks them where they were going. The kids had replied that they were going near the dead body. He had abused them and ask them to take the posture of cocks ( ‘Murga Banana’, a form of punishment where one is required to act like a cock by bending down and holding ears). They had stayed like that for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, Deepu gets a call. He moves a little further and the kids run away.

These things, that happened pointed towards Deepu. I personally never thought that Deepu would be involved in this but somehow we could sense that he knew the whole story and that is why he was harassing (people). Police asked us to give them 24 hours. We picked up the dead body. In Kathua village, Haji Mohd Jaan and his son had bought land 7 years ago. They owned it. There is a faith in Muslims, that the land for the graveyard should not be a forest or any other land and that it should be an owned by someone or should be a private one/ Malkiyat.

They had bought it in a few lacs 7 years ago. And it had 7 graves in it. For this 8th grave, they Asifa’s body was taken there. Some people from Rasana and some boys from Koota village came there with rods and asked what we were doing. They were told that the dead body was to be buried there but they said, “ listen if you dig a grave for this girl here more graves for you would be needed to be dug here and there. Nobody will own you.”

To that, they said, ” We have the papers of the land we have bought the land.” The reply they got was that the lands were provided to them so they could build houses on them, ‘which you have already built but Graves or mosques would not be allowed. We will not tolerate that.’

You can understand the way they were not allowing us to dig a grave, or build a mosque but constructing houses or shops was allowed. Because they know that tomorrow they can snatch our houses or shops. The Masjid or grave would have created a problem for them. The people asked me what to do and I told them, “let’s go to another graveyard” around 7 km away from that place.

Bandi Gujjar Basti is the name of that place where we buried her at 11:30 in the night. Trust me, that is a small village consisting of around 50 households of Bakarwals. On 17 January, at 11:30 in the night, starting from the time we buried Asifa, PHE stopped the supply of water up to 27th January. I’m not talking about RSS. I am talking about a government. Government stops the water supply to the community.

While the dead body was on the ground, I spoke in Dogri, a language that I know very well. The crowd that was gathered, they were crying and the elderly people were also crying.

The place where we had protested is known as Chanmorya chowk. The water supply of that place was also stopped, water supply to Rasana was also stopped.

The people who were crying at that time had stopped the water supply. What had happened that in Parshuram Mandir, a meeting was held in which MLA Hiranagar and MLA Kathua were included. Till this time Hindu Ekta Manch was not formed. Till this time Shubham Sangra was also not arrested. Only a meeting was held and water supply was stopped.

On the third day, we go to police station Hira Nagar and the SP asks us to give him a chance of one night and that next day everything will be in front of people.

The day we found the dead body, after the protest, the next day, the police get the dog squad and make them sniff.

The place from where the dead body was found, the dog had started sniffing from there and ran towards the Gadi ’s place where his animals were. Everybody suspected that Gadi had committed a murder. Police picked his son. His name is Jay Dev. Then again the dog had sniffed. It ran straight to Sanji Ram Patwari’s cattle shed.

The reason why Gadi was involved in this was that the night Asifa was murdered, the electricity transformer had blown up. Because Asifa was given a current after she couldn’t breathe. When her life was taken away, the good thing that had happened was that electricity of the whole village had cut off and then her dead body was picked up and thrown near the place where these animals would be kept. Thinking that either Gadi’s dogs would eat her. And if-if they do not; even if she survived, the one to be blamed would be Gadi. Earlier they would say that they would not give the leaves to Muslims but Gadi, who they considered as their brother, was framed. The blame was fixed on Gadi. After certain facts were revealed, Gadi was released.

On the third day, police revealed a story. A special investigation team was formed that consisted of Kathua police with DSP Chadwal heading it. After I came back from the police station, at around 10 to 11 p.m. someone had texted me to check my Facebook and WhatsApp. I logged in an saw that police had given a statement saying that it had solved the case. They had said that a 15-year-old was the main accused in the case and that they had kept his name hidden as he was a juvenile. They had said that they had arrested him.

Next day, we sat and held a press conference to discuss the matter. The turn of Asifa’s Chahrum had come. On that day, we gather and pray for the deceased. At our own level, we had called everyone to attend her Chaharum. People as well as SSP, DC also came. Asifa’s mother and father were told that they would be given some money. “Your son is studying in 10th standard, we will provide him with a job. But the condition is that you would not protest.”

But we protested saying that he is not a 15-year-old and that a 15-year-old cannot do it all alone. A 35-year-old would not have been able to do it alone. Even if she would have been kept in just one shed, support of another person would have been required. She was there for 7 days.

The day we protested, at 8:30 in the evening I was beaten. For 4 to 5 hours we stayed on the National Highway. They charged baton, everyone else was Beaten and chased off and I was picked up. I was at a police station in the night. I am a jaundice patient and was feeling quite exhausted as I had not eaten anything since morning. I asked for water and said if you are to put me in the lock-up, do it or let me lie down here. They called their higher-ups and got an order to put me in the lockup.

Then I was again called and asked if I wanted to eat something. Meanwhile, they were writing something in a file while someone was dictating it on the phone. In the morning, my fingerprints were taken. I could not understand as to why it happened. Fingerprints are taken from criminals and that too constitute of criminals who have very grave accusations against them. They had charged me with Section 307 that is, that I had attacked/ attempted a murder, on a man in uniform. Additional SSpcomes there and says, “ We are with you in this movement. But you support us and we will support you. We are not asking you not to talk about Asifa. But do one thing, don’t say that the boy is not a 15-year-old.”

This happened after MLA Hiranagar’s involvement. I had the evidence that when Gadi was arrested, a Bakarwal boy who would work with him ( cutting leaves), was also arrested with him. They stayed at the police station. In front of those two, the so-called 15-year-old Shubham Sangra was called in the police station. He had narrated the whole story there as to what all happened and how they murdered Asifa. After that, MLA Hiranagar had come to SHO Hiranagar, looked at Shubham and said, “Do something about this boy’s age.”

So the police say that boy is a juvenile and that way he would have been saved; with him, others would also have been safe. I was also pressurised saying that I can say anything but talk about his age. Rest you can accuse the police and government of everything.

Protests happened and assembly took place, I was released. Otherwise, IG Sahab had signed my PSA.

When I come out after 24 hours, 2 ministers from the tribal community who are in the tribal ministry and another person from the Sheep husbandary come Asifa’s home. I was also in the same area because my belongings including my purse, phone etc had been taken into custody. I had to take that back. They got to know that the ministers are coming so they said, ‘Talib, You come here and talk’. I reached. The minister comes and says, “Talib, now are you happy? We. gave the case to crime.”

I said, Jenab, we had demanded the judicial inquiry. We never asked for crime (branch). There are so many cases already piled up in the crime (branch). And even if DG Sahab does it, we do not trust (the investigation). It won’t be feasible.

I got messages from a person twice that Madam (Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti) wants to meet me. I said I cannot meet her. What would I do after meeting her? ‘Just ask the madam to get the accused arrested. Why meet?’

In between, we were doing something and later saw it on facebook that Asifa’s mother and father (uncle and aunt) are meeting CM Sahiba and she is writing that she has assured them that she will facilitate justice.

I guess, 20 days had passed after Asifa’s murder. Now, we were worried. We could understand why it was done. In JNU, Hyderabad, Aligarh, Haryana, Punjab, Kashmir and in other states, protests were taking place. Now, the meeting of parents with the CM meant weakening the movement. It was like, “The mother and father met. What now? Zero point is over” that is, the fight is over.

Then again, we again said that it is a drama. We tried to meet her parents and they refused. It’s the same uncle and aunt. They said that we are guarded and have been asked not to meet anybody. The greed they were given was: 4 lakh rupees cash and son’s job. He is a juvenile. Hasn’t even passed his matriculation examination. He will get the job whenever he passes the exam even if PDP-BJP is not the party in power.

The news in public was that they had taken the 4 lakh rupees. When asked, they would say, “they didn’t give it to us yet but they will. We know that.”

Again, we felt helpless that 26 days had passed and nothing is happening. Not even a single accused is getting arrested. What to do!
The crime (branch)’s team (SIT) consisted of their head who is from Kashmir, one from Poonch i.e, two people from Kashmir and 3 from Jammu. Meaning, what they are saying that they have made a team of Muslims and honest officers from the region have been deployed. But those honest officers also slept calmly in Jammu. They did nothing. So, what do we do? We decided to go on a hunger strike the next day because we were also going to discuss the Forest Rights Act (That was also necessary). We went on the strike and in between, a lawyer approached us from the High Court. She said that she supports us in Asifa’s case and wants to fight and we would get the monitoring done from the court. We thought it was a better way that crime’s team be here and the court would order them to work and the status report would be supervised by the court. We got it done from the court. It all happened. On the sixth day of the strike, an MLA Rajori from the government who has done good work for the community came and secretly told us, “Tomorrow your Deepak Khajuria is getting arrested. You will also get to know it publicly. You get up for now.”

We left and while we were sleeping in the night, exhausted- we were on the hunger strike for days now. I had been on the strike for 3 days then other supporters were. .. We woke up at 9 and when I switched on the phone, since morning all the PDP members or as many political party people had come live for 5 or 6 times on facebook saying the Deepak Khajuria has been arrested and that ‘we have gutted down a mountain, done this and that..’

We got happy and then also stressed out to the fact that a politics had started. After Deepak Khajuria’s arrest, on the next day, Hindu Ekta Manch (HEM) was formed. Now I came on the main point.

The HEM was formed with HEM, Jenab Vijay Kumar Sharma Ji as its president, Kanth Kumar Thapa( Gulam Nabi Azad’s Sahab’s best and closest Congress member) and other people in Congress and BJP majority. Because PDP doesn’t exist there, National Conference is also not there.

So, these two parties were there. These parties merged and HEM was formed. Now, what does HEM say?

Like, Madam said they left with the flags. They were coming out in rallies with flags and trying to prove and say that we are patriots. What does that prove? That proves that ‘we are patriots and if our patriot commits someone’s rape, that person (victim) is not a patriot but an anti-national.’ And this is our justification and this is the certificate that we have that we can do it because we are Patriots. On that, the Chief Minister said, “what is this nonsense and you have disrespected the flag.”

The next day HEM again protests and asks the CM as to how can she say that Deepu Khajuria is a rapist? How can you say that he is a rapist which is the right thing? Even I don’t consider him as a rapist. We cannot say that until the court says it. But, with this, Vijay Kumar Sharma uses a statement that the boy has confessed to the police, the ’15-year-old boy’ has confessed. He is the accused.

On one side they are asking CM as to how she can call him a rapist and on the other side did themselves are calling the boy a rapist. It means that you know the whole story and you deliberately planned and when events unfolded and gradually the pressure built. The good thing was that the status report would be updated in the court, every week. And discussions would take place on that. In Between, we asked crime (Crime Branch) what Kind of support they needed from us. What they wanted the court to say? Now the crime department was also under pressure.

The big thing that I would want to tell you standing here. I will tell you clearly that you are pressure, JNU’s, Jamia’s, Aligarh ’s pressure and pressure from other places was right. Me claiming that I am an activist and that I had to climb the mountain and that only I was under pressure is not right. There was nothing like that.

When pressure came from Kashmir especially from the Hurriyat conference. Yasin Malik Sahab got arrested, Mirwaiz Sahab dedicated his speech for two weeks to it and when Geelani Sahab said if the case is tampered with, the situation won’t stay good. The government started to worry. Now, what is PDP? The past situation in Kashmir, after all the issues, the situation was worsening but a stand on Asifa had given PDP a raise because PDP has no vote in Jammu. If it has any votes, it’s in Kashmir. Asifa’s issue has benefited it when Madam took a stand on it.

The important thing, HEM protests. Two BJP leaders: Chaudhary Lal Singh, forest minister and Chandra Prakash Ganga Ji, Industries Minister come. Chandra Prakash Ganga Ji is that man who in 2015 got a boy named Yaqoob killed. And Lal Singh is the one who from past three years is dragging out the nomads in Jammu from their homes.

Breaking them, beating them, doing very bad things to them. These two people go and say out loud that either the case will go to CBI or “we will also come on the streets with you.” These things happen. The limit of the shamelessness is that, after this, CM meeting takes place. It included the tribal ministry- BJP members as well. Minutes of the meeting: Ankur Sharma says that ‘I have taken it.’ “That I am a very clever person and I have taken it out from the Secretariat.”

There is nothing like that. The government also belongs to BJP. The minutes of the meeting were deliberately given out as to take it and say it. What had happened in the meeting, they had discussed that when the nomads move from Jammu to Kashmir or Kashmir to Jammu, the traffic people ask them for entry fees. The forest personals from place to place at the forest check post a document. Those who do not have it, money is taken from them and they are bothered a lot. It was said that such atrocities should not happen. Second, the Supreme Court order for night shelter that is there for the nomads was discussed. It is a place where for 3 or 4 months or even for 6 months, you can stay and then leave. You can construct that half concrete. The supreme court says that you cannot tamper with night shelter.)

All these things were discussed in the meeting. Also, wherever tribals would be bothered they can contact the tribal ministry. On that, Sangh gave a Press Conference that Mehbooba Mufti is an Islamist, fascist and jihadist and the agenda is being run in Jammu. And that it is being done to change the demography of Hindus. But the truth is that ( i am concluding) that in 2015 in Samba district, Yaqoob was killed. And 22 Muslim houses were damaged.

In 2016, in HaryaChak in Kathua district, during the night, a calf was beheaded and its head was thrown outside Haji Alamdin Sahab’s (name not clear) residence. At 6 in the morning, a man comes taking direction from someone on phone, looking for a (Bohri) bag. In about an hour, around 10 thousand people gathered around there. The place is quite near the Punjab Border. People were beaten up, their properties looted and FIR lodged against them (instead of the attackers). Like Yaqoob’s FIR was lodged on Gujjars when there is a video evidence of Prushik Sharma shooting him with a bullet.

All these things, running in series. Last two things, I would like to tell you: (A place) to which where Lal Singh’s wife belongs to is a place Disachak Panchayat of village Banyadi. A widow named Kuwa lives there. Her 20 canal land was occupied and first Territorial Army of JK sat there for 2 years. One night BJP came, and in the morning when our people opened eyes, army men had left and cows had taken their place. The beef is coming in at a place around which Muslims reside (It’s a Goshala). On four side, Muslims live and on their very land in the centre is a Goshala. It’s a Malikiat- owned land. First, they had said militants come from Pakistan and Gujjars give them shelter so we need to make a camp necessarily.

Today Goshala is the root cause of a big issue. ChatarShah named graveyard in Kathua with 74 canal land, three stone crushers were running on that. One Lal Singh’s in someone’s name, one his young brother Babi, and one NC’s. They call Gujjaras their Nanihalis. Farooq Abdullah Sahab says that his mother was a Gujjari. “That is why I love Gujjars” and our simple people from that time also think that the National Conference belongs to pious people and they are their relatives.

One of their candidates named Jeet Sharma who belong to Kathua constituency, his stone Crusher is on ChatarShah graveyard and all this is happening as per a strategy. At the time they IG crime Alok Puri Sahib had said to NDTV that Asifa issue was created so Muslims in Samba and Kathua could be threatened. So that, those who are living there would run away and those who decided to come there would think 10 times before coming.

The Bar Council of Jammu, I pray God makes them lawyers; their president B. S Salathia Sahab does not belong to RSS or BJP but Congress. He holds a press conference that Forest Right Act should not be imposed in the state as Jammu’s demography would change when you know, with the Forest Act Right they would not get any ownership on the land but only get the grazing rights on the forest land and the basic facilities are provided. They are not saying that they people will go Kashmir and live there and Muslim population would grow in Kashmir but they are saying it for Jammu. It is totally baseless.

I won’t talk much about it as I have spoken too much already. I hope the fight has just begun (I have heard a slogan from you. “Abi tou li angdaie hai”. I don’t hesitate in saying it here that if for Asifa andy strong voice would raise, that would come from you.

You can watch the video here:

Click to comment
To Top