People in various areas of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday held demonstrations to seek justice for recent gang rape victim in New Delhi.
A group of students who appeared near Press Enclave to protest against the incident told reporters that they want justice for rape victims of Kashmir also.
Against crime
“Kashmiris are not terrorists and are against any crime happening in any society. But at the same time we want justice for all the rape victims in Kashmir especially those raped in Kunan Poshpora (Kupwara) in early 1990s and two girls in Shopian who were raped and later murdered in 2009,” a protester said.
The Majlis-e-Mashawarat Shopian, which spearheaded the 2009 agitation against rape and murder of Shopian girls, held demonstrations in south Kashmir’s Shopian town on Monday.
Majlis spokesperson Mohammad Shafi Khan told reporters, “Who else apart from Shopian people could feel the pain what the people of Delhi are feeling. Our demand is that a strict punishment should be awarded to the rapists and they should be immediately hanged.”
‘Double standards’
The hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Monday demanded that the culprits should be stone to death under Islamic law.
“The gang rape of a young woman in New Delhi is a horrific crime against humanity,” he said.
However, the Hurriyat hawk questioned the “double standards of Indian people, who have taken to streets to protest the Delhi gang rape incident but maintained silence over numerous incidents in Kashmir during the past two decades.”
Jammu protests
In Jammu city also, students took out rallies protesting against the Delhi’s rape
incident and demanded capital punishment for the rapists.
Despite government’s announcement of declaring holiday on Monday in Jammu colleges, students of various colleges under the banner of National Panthers Students Union (NPSU) protested against the gang rape incident and an attempted rape of a local girl in Gharota area of Jammu.
The students of various government colleges raised the slogans against the Delhi and J&K governments for failing to provide safety to girls.
PM’s wife seeks severe punishment
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur on Monday expressed her outrage at the gang rape of a woman in a moving bus in the capital on December 16 and called for severe punishment to the guilty, reports IANS from New Delhi.
Joining those who have been expressing their anguish at the incident, Gursharan Kaur said there is a need of fast track courts to deal with such cases.
“We all are very sad at this incident...This is a horrible crime...Such incident needs to be
condemned in the strongest possible way,” she said on the sidelines of a function here.
Gursharan Kaur also said any protest against the incident should be peaceful as it will yield more results. The capital has been witnessing series of protests by many groups.