Kathua rape-murder: Jammu lawyers reiterate demand for CBI probe
Jammu, April 12: The Jammu Bar Association on Thursday reiterated its demand for a CBI probe into the Kathua rape and murder case, asserting that it did not support the accused but wanted a fair probe.
B.S. Slathia, president of the bar association, told the media that attempts were being made to project the lawyers as supporters of the accused against whom the state crime branch has produced a damning charge sheet in the court.
"Lawyers of Jammu are being maligned in order to divide the state on communal lines. All we have been saying is that the investigation of the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Does anyone say that the CBI is communal," Slathia asked.
He said the Crime Branch that has been investigating the case has brought an officer from the Kashmir Valley to carry out the probe while the organisation had enough staff in the Jammu region.
"The officer in question has faced murder and rape allegations in the past. We have said the association of this officer with the investigation process has put a question mark on the probe.
"Justice should not only be done, but must also be seen as being done. It is unfortunate that communal motives are being attributed to our demand. The media should report events in an honest manner," Slathia said .
He said the bar association had never objected to settlements of Muslims from the Valley or the Chenab region in Jammu.
"We have objected to settlement of Rohingyas in Jammu because their presence here has security implications.
"If opposing those who are involved in posing security threats to the country is being communal, then be it," he added.
In another development state Industries Minister, Chander Prakash Ganga, has accused the media of being unfair in reporting the events.
"We want the culprits to be brought to justice. People were demanding that members of a particular community were being victimised. It was in that context that I spoke to the people there," the minister said.
He, however, admitted that the Crime Branch has fairly investigated the case and he is satisfied with it.
The minister had participated in the Hindu Ekta Manch meeting that demanded the transfer of the case to the CBI.
An eight-year-old girl was gang raped and murdered by several men, who had held her in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district for a week in January.
The victim, who belonged to the nomadic Bakarwal Muslim community, had disappeared from near her home in the forests next to Rasana village, 90 km from Jammu, on January 10. A week later, her body was found in the same area.
The Jammu and Kashmir police charge sheet has said the main accused Sanji Ram, "the mastermind" of the crime, instigated his minor nephew and six others to execute the ghastly act to drive out the Bakarwal community from Hiranagar tehsil.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
