Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah sought action against the two BJP ministers without naming them. (File)
Hours after Jammu and Kashmir Police registered a case against lawyers who tried to prevent Crime Branch officials from filing a chargesheet in the Kathua rape and murder case, former J&K chief minister and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that lawyers got emboldened by actions of two ministers in the PDP-BJP coalition government in the state and asked the government whether action will be taken against them.
National Conference (NC), the main opposition party in the state, also demanded transfer of the case from Kathua to any other court for a free and fair trial in the backdrop of lawyers’ protests.
On Tuesday, J&K Police registered a case against the lawyers who had, on Monday, tried to create ruckus and attempted to prevent Crime Branch officials from filing the chargesheet. While appreciating the police’s role, Omar Abdullah sought action against the two BJP ministers without naming them. He tweeted, “Action by @JmuKmrPolice against the Kathua mob masquerading as lawyers let’s not forget the mob were emboldened by the actions/words of two BJP ministers in @MehboobaMufti’s cabinet. What about action against them?’’
The body of the eight-year-old girl from the nomadic Bakerwal community was recovered from the forests in Rassana on January 17, a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the woods.
NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said, “Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti promised a free and fair trial on the floor of the House and said that the guilty will not be spared. Yesterday, what happened in Kathua is an eye opener. This case should be transferred to any other court in J&K.”
The Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik termed the attempt of Kathua Bar Association and certain political parties of Jammu as shocking. “There will be hardly any place in the world where efforts will be made by a section of people to shield the culprits involved in a minor child’s rape and murder unless there is a heinous ulterior motive involved,’’ they said.
Citing the example of the December 2016 rape and murder in Delhi, they said that all political, religious and social organisations as well as civil society activists should join hands and speak in one voice to ensure severe punishment to the culprits and justice for the victim. “(But)… every effort is being made to shield and save the culprits by communalising this human issue of justice to a little child,” they said.