Neyaz Elahi
Srinagar : Rape incidents, particularly involving minors are not now uncommon in Kashmir-once known as ‘Valley of Saints’. A fresh incident of alleged rape of 3 year old baby sent shock waves among locals in a Southern area on Thursday. The accused also a minor has been arrested by police while investigation has been set into motion.
The shocking incident has occurred in Wuyan Khrew area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
A police official told news agency KNT that father (name withheld) of a three year old girl approached police post Khrew and lodged a written complaint that his 3 year old baby (name withheld) has been raped by 13 year old Faisal Reyaz Malik, also a resident of Wuyan Pampore.
Accordingly police arrested the accused and filed an FIR vide number 28/2020 under section 376, 3/4 PASCO ACT.
Locals while demanding stern action against the accused lamented over the degradation of moral values in society. “It is not the same Kashmir where people used to follow and propagate highest degrees of moral values and ethics. Now, parents handover cell phones to children not knowing it’s repercussions. Access to porn sites, YouTube on internet emboldens children while their parents never bother to emphasis on moral values,” said a local Javaid Ahmed.
A couple of days ago, a 14 year old girl was found 8 months pregnant after allegedly being raped by a relative in South Kashmir’s Shangus area. The family members said that the accused, a man living in their neighbourhood, is a relative of the victim’s mother, and would visit their home on one pretext or another. The accused, 35 years old, now in police custody hails from Uttersoo area of Anantnag.
From past decade, Kashmir witnessed a surge in rape incidents, most of them go un-noticed. Rape is a stigmatized crime wherein aspersions are cast on the victim instead of the accused. This emboldens menfolk who bank heavily on a female’s silence to preserve her honour. It is also very easy to put the blame on the woman for bringing out the beast in a man.
In 2012, a 25 year old youth Imtiyaz Ahmad Bhat, even didn’t spare a 13 year old mentally and physically challenged girl and raped her in South Kashmir’s Shopian district. After the investigation, police had confirmed the rape.
A young man said that local Journalists in Valley don’t usually report rape incidents. “Let them show mirror to the society, that will be a great service,” he said.
“Such incidents are bound to occur in a degraded and morally corrupt society where materialism has crept in so deep that parents forget to imbibe moral values and never bother to impart moral principles to their children,” said an elderly man to KNT.
