Killing, rape of 8-year Muslim Girl in Hindu temple shows deepening religious divide in India

WASHINGTON, April 12 (APP):The killing of an 8-year-old Muslim girl allegedly by Hindu men in a temple in Jammu and Kashmir
is the latest example of religious friction, as Hindu activists and population are vehemently defending
the accusers who raped the girl for days before crushing her skull.
According to a report by the Washington Post published on Thursday, eight Hindu men have been accused of killing Asifa Bano, who police said, was killed in a Hindu temple on Jan. 17, days after she was disappeared.
Mohammad Yusuf Pujwala, father of the unfortunate girl, told media that his daughter was killed
by Hindu men for the sole purpose of driving her people away from the area. Pujwala is a Muslim
nomad and part of the Bakarwal tribe.
Police have filed charges against the accused and said that she was killed in a Hindu temple
and that custodian of the temple plotted her to torment the Muslim tribe.
Chaotic scene was seen outside a courthouse in Kashmir this week when Hindu lawyers physically tried to stop police from filing charges against the accused men. But, police managed to
file charges against the men, who included four policemen and a retired government official, according
to the report.
Showing the deepening divide and the hatred of Hindus towards Muslims, Hindu activists are organizing protests against the police investigation. In a blatant disregard to the nature of the heinous crime, even Hindu women are taking part in protests, including bloc king a highway and staging hunger strike.
A Hindu woman protesters told media that Muslims are against the Hindu religion and that if the accused men were not released, they would burn themselves in protest. The Hindu lawyers, including a group which is said to be affiliated with ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are opposing the indictment of the rapists on the basis of “religious prejudice”.
After the murder of a medical student in New Delhi in 2012, the government had promised to
take action to reform the legal reforms but, according to Human Rights Watch, not much has changed
for rape victims.
Many BJP members have directly intervened in the case of Bano’s death and have asked
that the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation, saying that the agency would be neutral. But CBI directly reports to the BJP-led government in New Delhi.
“Asifa’s case has shaken the state’s Legislative Assembly. Weeks after her body was found, lawmakers still questioned the police’s behavior in the days after Asifa disappeared: Police waited two days to file a report after Asifa disappeared, for example, and did not alert newspapers until days after she was killed,” the Washington Post report said quoting an Indian media report.