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The child from the nomadic Bakerwal Muslim community had disappeared from near her home in the forests next to Rasana village in Kathua on January 10. A week later, her body was found in the same area. Expressing distress over the tragedy, perhaps the first reaction from a BJP minister, he said we have failed her as humans.
“But she will not be denied justice,” the minister of state in the External Affairs Ministry added in his tweet. A Special Investigation Team formed to probe the incident has arrested eight people, including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a head constable, who was charged with destruction of evidence.
A charge sheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police said abduction, rape and killing of the girl was part of a carefully planned strategy to remove the minority community from the area. The rape has polarised the state with the local bar association calling for a bandh against what it termed the “targeting of minority Dogras”, while the Valley saw protests demanding justice for the deceased.