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Archives for April 2018

Ready to roar for my next fight: P.V. Sindhu

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On the back of her gruelling final match at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG), ace shuttler P.V. Sindhu says no loss is ever enough to stop her from believing in herself, and she is once again ready to roar.

Sindhu, who led the Indian contingent at the glittering opening ceremony which launched the CWG in Gold Coast, Australia, was defeated by Indian star shuttler Saina Nehwal in the much-anticipated women’s singles summit clash. Nehwal won the gold medal while Sindhu bagged the silver.

Gold Coast: India’s P V Sindhu returns to Australia’s Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen during the Badminton women’s singles round of 16 match at the Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast, on Thursday. PTI Photo by Manvender Vashist (PTI4_12_2018_000046B)


Now that Sindhu, brand ambassador of sports drink brand Gatorade, is back in the country, she has penned an open letter on her never-say-die attitude.

“One more down but many more to go! As much as I had given my all to this game, I am once again ready to roar for my next fight, to finish and win. This is my journey, the journey of a sportsperson, every feat accomplished is followed by zeroing on the next target.

“No loss is ever enough, neither one nor many to stop me from believing in myself. Every time I miss a return, every time my shot fails to clear the net and every time I hit it long — I remind myself, it is not done until I am done,” Sindhu wrote.

Sindhu, who had earlier made India proud at the Rio Olympics, where she thrashed Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the women’s singles badminton semi-final, becoming the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the quadrennial event, said it was a proud feeling to stand on the CWG podium and receive a medal for the country.

“Standing at the podium, head bowed to receive my Silver Commonwealth medal at the women’s singles event, the heart swells with pride, moments of struggle, strife and sweat flash before my eyes. For me victory only begins to sink when the first beat of national anthem falls on my ears and then it gets louder, so do the cheers from the crowd, that is when I finally breathe out — mission accomplished.

“Marching down the tracks as the flagbearer of the Indian contingent at the Commonwealth Games this year, I felt rest upon my shoulders the hope and faith of a million. With every step that I took, I knew it was time to bring together my skill, stamina and most of all my spirit, the spirit to rise higher after every fall, come back harder after every drop.

“From the moment of get, set and go until my last smash, I sweat from every pore, using every iota of strength left in me because giving up is not an option,” she wrote.

Sindhu believes one should “let nothing stand in the way of your dreams, let nothing pull you down, let nothing beat you”.

“Winning becomes a habit when sweating for it becomes an attitude! So, to all my countrymen and women, fans, well-wishers and badminton lovers who now tune out after having savoured a nail-biting finish, know that I am not done. My journey with Gatorade to Sweat More, Sweat for Gold continues unabashed,” she posted.

Kerala agency to facilitate police clearance for UAE-bound persons

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The Roots Norka, a Kerala government agency that handles the affairs pertaining to the state’s diaspora, was on Monday approved by the UAE Embassy here to attest police clearance certificates of those wishing to go to the Emirates, an official said.

Roots Norka Centre Manager Hari Kumar told IANS that it will immensely help Kerala residents desirous of working in the United Arab Emirates.

“Hitherto, the process was that the applicants had to present all certificates to the UAE Embassy here. But now, we will do this job for the applicants,” said Kumar.

He said the centre gets around 100 certificates on an average for attestation daily. The applicants need not waste their time waiting in queues at the embassy now, Kumar said.

The police clearance certificate attestation was first done by a notary, before it was submitted to the Home Department. The certificate was then forwarded to the Ministry of External Affairs, and later handed back to the applicants for submission to the UAE Embassy.

“Now onwards, once the applicants get the Home Department’s clearance, we will handle the remaining process. This will cut the delay by almost a week,” he said.

The UAE is the most preferred destination for Keralites among all Middle East countries.

US, UK warn against Russia-sponsored cyber-attacks

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Cyber security representatives from the US and Britain have warned of Russian state-sponsored cyber-attacks that are targeting network infrastructure devices such as routers and firewalls, to compromise government and private sectors globally.

According to a US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), the Technical Alert (TA) provided information on the worldwide cyber exploitation of network infrastructure devices (routers, switches, firewalls, Network-based Intrusion Detection Systems) by Russian state-sponsored cyber actors.

The joint TA is the result of analytic efforts between the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, according to information on the official website of the DHS.

“Victims were identified through a coordinated series of actions between US and international partners. The report builds on previous DHS reporting and advisories from the UK, Australia and the European Union,” the website said.

“The FBI has high confidence that Russian state-sponsored cyber actors are using compromised routers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to support espionage, extract intellectual property, maintain persistent access to victim networks, and potentially lay a foundation for future offensive operations,” the website added.

Since 2015, the US government has been receiving information from multiple sources — including private and public sector cyber security research organisations and allies — that cyber actors were exploiting large numbers of enterprise-class and residential routers and switches worldwide.

The US government assessed that cyber actors supported by the Russian government carried out this worldwide campaign.

These operations enable espionage and intellectual property that supports the Russian Federation’s national security and economic goals, the website said.

Russian cyber actors leverage a number of legacy or weak protocols and service ports associated with network administration activities.

Cyber actors use these weaknesses to identify vulnerable devices, extract device configurations, harvest login credentials, modify device firmware, and copy or redirect victim traffic through Russian cyber-actor-controlled infrastructure.

Organisations can use publicly available cyber security guidance and best practices from DHS, allied governments, vendors and the private-sector cyber security community on mitigation strategies for the exploitation vectors to safeguard their networks.

Sushma in China from Saturday, to hold talks with Wang Yi

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India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold bilateral talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during her two-day China visit beginning on Saturday.
Sushma Swaraj will meet Wang on the sidelines of the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO).

She will meet a more powerful Wang, who in March was elevated to China’s top diplomatic post of State Councillor. They are likely to discuss a host of thorny issues.

India-China ties were severely hit by the 73-day military stand-off in Doklam last year. Both sides are now trying to restore normalcy to their ties by stepping up bilateral exchanges.

China’s opposition to India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and its move to block bids at the UN to list Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group, as a global terrorist, has irked New Delhi.

In addition, New Delhi has reservations about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which cuts through Pakistan-held Kashmir that is claimed by India.

Sushma Swaraj, whose last visit to China was in 2015, is also likely to meet other top Chinese leaders.

India’s Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will also visit China next week and hold a dialogue with her counterpart.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in June on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit.

India and Pakistan were admitted to the China-led block in 2017.

Disabled Dalit woman gang raped in Andhra

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In a shocking incident, a physically challenged Dalit woman was gang raped in Vijayanagaram district of Andhra Pradesh, police said on Monday.

An auto-rickshaw driver and his two accomplices allegedly raped the 21-year-old, in Phool Bagh area of Vijayanagaram town late on Sunday night.

According to police, the woman was on her way to her sister’s house in the three-wheeler. The auto driver, who was accompanied by two other men, diverted the vehicle and took the victim to an isolated place, where the accused violated her.

A passerby rushed to rescue her after hearing her cries. He dropped the victim at her relatives’ house. She was later admitted to government-run hospital.

Police registered a case of rape and also under the SC/ST Act against the auto driver and the two others. A police officer said they were on the lookout for the accused.

People condemned the inhuman act of the accused and demanded stringent punishment.

Congress sets up cell to quell revolt in poll-bound Karnataka

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Karnataka’s ruling Congress on Monday set up a special cell to quell the revolt brewing in the party from a dozen sitting legislators and scores of aspirants whose names did not figure in the 218 candidates declared to contest the May 12 assembly elections.

“We have set up cell headed by state unit President G. Parameshwara to pacify the members and aspirants who could not be selected to contest in the assembly poll for multiple reasons,” party’s state Vice President K.E. Radhakrishna told IANS here.

Admitting that the party was facing rebellion in at least six constituencies from sitting legislators and ticket aspirants, he said the cell would soon meet them and explain why they could not be selected to contest this time.

“Once we finalise names for the remaining 5-6 constituencies in the next 2-3 days, we will call all those who could not make it to the list as there have been many aspirants for every assembly segment,” Radhakrishna said.

According to reports from districts, hundreds of party’s workers staged angry protests at the party offices for denying ticket to their respective leaders at Chikkamagluru, Badami, Bagalkot, Ballari, Mandya, Kolar and Chikkaballapur.

The disappointed party cadres also vowed to campaign against the selected candidates if their leaders were ignored and denied opportunity to contest in the polls.

Polling will be held in a single phase for the 224 assembly segments across the state on May 12 and votes will be counted on May 15.

“Of the 122 sitting legislators, 12 could not be re-nominated for health reasons, old age and due to prospects of winning being not so bright as per our surveys,” said Radhakrishna.

The party has decided not to field its candidate in the Melukote in Mandya district in support of Swaraj India candidate Darshan Puttannaiah, son of the state’s farmer leader, late K.S. Puttananaiah, who was a member of the outgoing state assembly, representing the Karnataka Sarvodaya Paksha, which merged with Swaraj India in March 2017.

“The selection has been made solely on the winning criteria after carefully considering other social factors, including their caste and community for fair representation of all sections of society,” said Radhakrishna.

The party has fielded 42 Lingayats, 39 Vokkaligas, 52 Other Backward Classes, 35 Scheduled Castes, 17 Scheduled Tribes for the reserved constituencies, 15 Muslims, 7 Brahmins, 6 Reddy Lingayts and two each from Jain and Christian communities.

Among the selected candidates, 24 are in the age group of 25-40, 49 between 41-50 years, 72 in the 51-60 years, 66 in the 61-70 years and 7 in the above 70 age group.

Besides Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s son Yatheendra to contest from Varuna in Mysuru district, the party has given ticket to Law Minister T. B. Jayachandra’s son Santosh in Chikkanayakanahalli and Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter Sowmya from Jayanagar in south Bengaluru.

In Karnataka, a former policewoman enters politics to police politicians

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By Bhavana Akella
Anupama Shenoy, a former woman police officer in Karnataka, has entered politics to become a lawmaker and police politicians who make promises but don’t fulfill them.

“I have entered politics, floated a party to contest in the May 12 state assembly elections and become a lawmaker to police politicians so that they fulfill their promises and fear any wrongdoing,” Shenoy told IANS in an interview here.

Shenoy, 37, a 2010 batch officer of the Karnataka State Police Cadre, resigned as Kudligi Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) in Ballari district in June 2016 after a spat with a state cabinet minister and a local liquor baron.

As Shenoy could not get justice within the administrative system or serve the people to her satisfaction, she decided to empower herself by plunging into politics.

Though Shenoy floated the Bharatiya Janashakti Congress (BJC) on November 1, 2017, she registered it on February 18 with the Election Commission (EC), which allotted it the “lady’s finger” (bhindi) symbol on March 15 to contest in the assembly polls and the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

“I am in politics to create a new leadership in the state, as the youth in the three main parties have no space to become leaders unless they are wealthy to contest elections,” asserted Shenoy. The ruling Congress in the state is being challenged by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).

As a greenhorn in politics, Shenoy knows she cannot come to power, but wants to get into the political system anyway so as to ensure better governance, clean administration and efficient delivery of services to the people across the state.

“Our party will contest in about 30 constituencies, with seven-eight in Bengaluru, three in Vijayapura, two each in Bagalkot, Kalaburgi, Mysuru and Udupi, and the remaining in other districts of the state. I plan to contest from Kaup segment in the coastal Udupi district,” said an upbeat Shenoy.

For the 225-member assembly, including one nominated, a single-phase polling will be held in 224 constituencies on May 12, with the counting on May 15.

“I want to make my party a platform for the youth and anyone committed to changing the political system and serving the people better. Their economic and social backgrounds do not matter,” she affirmed.

Candidates contesting on the BJC ticket, however, should have no criminal background or police cases against them and should know to read and write Kannada, the state’s native language.

“As I was in the police department for four years after joining government service in 2012, I am teaching my party members how to police politicians for the good of the people and the state,” Shenoy averred.

For Shenoy, winning in the assembly elections is not as much a priority as establishing her party through the democratic process. She noted that even the BJP had won only two seats when it was formed in 1980 and the grand old Congress took decades to come to power in the past.

“We have not formed the party only to contest in the assembly elections, but to sow the seeds for its growth in the years to come. We will support any party that secures majority to form the next government in the state,” hinted Shenoy.

As parties are permitted to spend Rs 28 lakh for the campaign in each assembly segment, BJC will raise funds from trusts which support new parties financially.

“In the long run, we want to support candidates who are poor by sponsoring their election expense. We are managing so far with whatever money we have from our sources,” said Shenoy.

Claiming that BJC was against corruption, Shenoy said her party would be transparent, pro-women and pro-environment with sustainable policies.

“We also want to check the rampant commercialization of the education and health sectors in the country so that better facilities can be provided to the needy. As people are our kingmakers, we have to protect them at any cost,” she said.

Shenoy left a promising career in protest against harassment by her seniors who transferred her for taking on a liquor baron in the northwest district.

“People around me think I should have continued in the high-profile job. But I had to quit as there was no other means to ventilate against my seniors,” she recalled.

Singling out former state labour minister P.T. Parameshwar Naik, who was Ballari district’s in-charge, for meddling in her work, Shenoy said she had opposed her transfer from Kudligi as the model code of conduct was in force for the local body elections by the state election commission, which supported the state government and left her in distress for 10 days.

“I have also complained to the Chief Electoral Office not to depute two IPS officers, S. Murugan and R. Chetan, on election duty as they were my seniors and harassed me on the transfer, which was not binding due to the poll code,” she reiterated.

Observing that it was very hard to be a public servant as politicians force officers to secure money through any means, Shenoy said a bad politician and a bad public servant “rot” the system when they were hand-in-glove.

For Shenoy, the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP and JD-S in the state are alike when it comes to the three Cs — corruption, communalism and casteism.

“I think corruption was high during the BJP rule (2008-2013), under the leadership of its chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, when his government looted the rich mining district (Ballari) with mining baron G. Janardhan Reddy as a cabinet minister. He made politicians believe they will not be questioned,” lamented Shenoy.

Blaming the Congress government for curbing the state ombudsman’s powers to investigate graft cases by setting up an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as its head, Shenoy said the executive wing of the Constitution become a mere political tool in the state.

“The state government uses ACB to threaten opposition leaders, while the central government uses the CBI and ED against the state government,” she added.

BJP second list has 82 candidates

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released the second list of candidates who will contest the May 12th state Assembly elections on Monday. This list contains the names of 82 candidates. On April 9th, BJP had released its first list made up of 72 candidates. BJP has not yet finalized the candidates for the remaining 70 Assembly constituencies.

Katta Subramaniam Naidu has been selected for Shivajinagar Assembly segment in Bengaluru district. R. Roshan Baig is the Congress candidate in this constituency against whom Naidu is competing.

Vasudeva Murthy will be contesting from Shantinagar in Bengaluru. Congress has not yet finalized the name of its incumbent legislator N.A. Harris for this constituency. N.A. Haris son is still in judicial custody for attacking Vidvat.

Congress defector N. Narendra Babu will be contesting from Mahalakshi Layout.N Nandish Reddy will contest from K R Puram Assembly constituency. The prominent candidates selected to contest in the Assembly elections include G Somasekhar Reddy (Bellary City), Sanna Fakirappa (Bellary – ST) and S Krishnaiah Shetty (Malur).

BJP candidates for undivided Dakshina Kannada are:

Belthangady- Harish Poonja
Moodbidri- Umanath Kotian
Bantwal- Rajesh Naik
Puttur- Sanjeeva Mattandoor
Byndoor- B Sukumar Shetty
Last week release of BJP’s first list of candidates includes S Angara (Sullia- SC), Sunil Kumar (Karkala) and Halady Shrinivas Shetty (Kundapur).

All India Mahila Empowerment Party (MEP) unveils first list of candidates

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A week after releasing its manifesto, All India Mahila Empowerment Party (MEP) today released its first list of candidates to contest for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly Elections.

While announcing the candidates, Dr Nowhera Shaik, President, All India Mahila Empowerment Party, said, “We have chosen our candidates after a lot of careful deliberations. They all believe in our platform of social justice and equality for all. Their concern too is the welfare of the downtrodden and oppressed groups. Our candidates, too, are concerned with the welfare of women who are at the wrong end of the spectrum.”

She added, “Our candidates have worked at the grassroots, and so they know what needs to be done to uplift the conditions of the people, especially women. All of them are passionate about the issues concerning women in the country. They are all leaders in their own right, and they all want to uplift the economic conditions of women by giving them equal opportunities.”

Dr. Nowhera Shaikh said that her party is confident of winning over 150 seats, in its maiden elections.

“We are contesting on a platform of social justice and equality for all. The welfare of the downtrodden and oppressed groups is our main aim. We are especially concerned about the welfare of the voiceless women who face the maximum discrimination and economic suffering, she added”.

Asifa’s rape and killing: The girl, her family and the accused

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Police investigation details gruesome rape and killing of eight-year-old Asifa Bano, as outrage in India soars.
The time was ripe to kill the girl, Sanji Ram told his juvenile nephew on a cold January evening.

The ritual had been performed and Asifa, an eight-year-old Muslim nomad girl, was taken to a culvert in front of a temple where she had been kept in captivity, and sedated, for four days in Rasana village of Kathua district in Indian-administered Kashmir.

But, before she would be strangulated and her head was hit twice with a stone “to make sure” she is dead, Deepak Khajuria, a special police officer, made a demand. He wanted to rape the girl before she was killed.

“As such”, the police investigation noted, “once again the little girl was gang raped” by the accused police officer and then by the juvenile.

For the next three months, the rape and murder of Asifa seemed to be another case of sexual violence that is rampant in India but rare in Indian administered Kashmir, till the barbarity and the plot came to fore in the 16-page charge sheet presented by the crime branch – a local investigating agency.

The investigation revealed that the rape and murder were systematic, preplanned and rooted in religious hatred harboured by Sanji Ram, a Hindu, against the Muslim nomadic community of Bakarwals.

The nomad girl
Asifa, the nomad girl, loved to take horses for grazing to the forest near her home in Rasana, a quiet village in Kathua district of Indian-administered Kashmir.

The reason Asifa was picked as a target by Sanji Ram, who knew she “often comes to the forest”, was simple; they wanted to drive the Muslim community out, according to the investigation.

In captivity inside a temple, Asifa was drugged and raped. The police in its investigation report described Asifa as an “innocent budding flower, a child of only eight years of age, who being a small kid became a soft target”.

Outrage over the rape and killing of Asifa Bano soared across India [Jaipal Singh/EPA]
The crime, however, was rooted in a sinister conspiracy and Asifa’s rape and murder were the means to an end – create fear among the Muslim nomadic community, Bakarwal, and force them to leave.

Rafeeza Bano, Asifa’s 55-year-old mother, recalls the horror she saw on her dead daughter’s body. “There were scars on her cheeks,” she told Al Jazeera at their camp in Udhampur.

“Her lips had turned black, and her eyes had bulged out. It was a scary scene for a mother to see,” she said. “She was my youngest child. It was horrific. She had faced a lot of barbarity.”

The mother now fears for her surviving daughter, aged 13. “They did this with an eight-year-old girl, imagine what they can do with a 13-year-old,” she said.

Asifa’s mother Rafeeza Bano, 55, at their nomadic camp in the meadows of Udhampur [Rifat Fareed/Al Jazeera]
The Family
The tough life of a nomad had cast its shadow on Mohammad Akhtar and he looks older than his 45 years. He now lives with a more damning burden – the elusive justice for his daughter, Asifa.

On a hill in Udhampur district, nearly 150km north of Rasana, the family camps under the open sky with their herd of goats and horses. The journey is part of the annual migration of this nomadic community in search of grazing pastures.

“Her face was full of scratches and bites,” Akhtar told Al Jazeera, describing the marks of torment on Asifa. “I never knew they will do this with the child, her milk teeth were yet to fall out,” he said.

Asifa’s father Muhammad Akhtar with his daughter Manega sitting at the camp in Udhampur [Rifat Fareed/Al Jazeera]
Akhtar is Asifa’s biological father as the girl was raised by her maternal uncle, Mohammad Yusuf, who adopted her when she was a toddler after he lost his three children in an accident.

“After she was killed it created more fear than before. We now take our daughters along all the time, all in our community became protective towards our daughters,” he said.

Akhtar said the family also faced threats in the aftermath of the incident.

“They said if our men are given the death sentence, we will kill you one by one. After the dead body was found, Hindu people came to us and threatened us,” he said.

Gazala, Asifa’s aunt who lived in nearby Samba district, says she now fears for her two daughters aged nine and four. “I fear for them. They would run after the horses, they were free to play but now we are very worried. We had not seen anything as gruesome,” she said.

Asifa’s rape and murder have forced an early migration of Bakarwals, a tribe with a rudimentary lifestyle that earns a living out of herding goats, sheep and horses to mountainous pastures. The incident instilled fear in their community, which is unprotected during its lengthy migratory journeys.

Manega, Asifa’s elder sister, was still in shock when she talked to Al Jazeera in Udhampur.

“I saw her dead body,” she said. “I now fear a lot. We don’t play, we don’t go out alone. Asifa’s killing has shattered us,” Manega, 13, said.


Asifa’s sister, Manega: “We used to play together. We would run and play in the meadows” [Rifaat Fareed/Al Jazeera]
The accused
A retired government official, his son who came from another city to “satisfy his lust”, the juvenile nephew and his close friend, and the special police officer were all part of the conspiracy and crime to kidnap, rape and murder the eight-year-old girl, according to the police report. Three police officers were involved in destroying the evidence.

The incident, which initially appeared to draw a reluctant outrage, however, snowballed into a major crisis for India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the horrifying details and motives of the rape and murder came into public domain.

Human rights groups have repeatedly claimed that religious minority groups, particularly Muslims, face increasing “demonisation by hardline Hindu groups, pro-government media and some state officials” in India, and the frequency of such incidents appears to be increasing.

In a recent Amnesty International report, the London-based human rights group noted that dozens of “hate crimes against Muslims took place across the country”.

“At least ten Muslim men were lynched and many injured by vigilante cow protection groups, many of which seemed to operate with the support of members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party,” it said.

While the outrage over Asifa’s rape and murder was muted – even missing – during the initial weeks, the eight accused men found a crusading force of lawyers and ministers from BJP in their support, some of whom insisted the police investigators were Muslims and had a bias towards the accused – all of whom Hindus.

In the second week of April, nearly three months since Asifa’s body was found in the forested foothill, a group of Hindu lawyers attempted to block police investigators from entering a court premise where they had gone to file the charges against the accused.

“It is shocking that the lawyers in Kathua so blatantly tried to obstruct justice in this case,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, said in her report last week.

“For the local lawyers and other BJP supporters, the Hindu suspects and the Muslim victim were grounds for blocking prosecution of the case,” Ganguly said.

As the pressure mounted on BJP, which administers Indian administered Kashmir in an alliance based government, its two ministers – who had attended a rally in favour of the accused – resigned.

“The investigation was completed within 90 days which makes it clear that there was no intervention or attempt to block the investigation,” BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav told reporters in the city of Jammu, 60km from here.

The Fear
The fact that it took three months and the exposure of horrific details for the outrage to build against the rape and murder of the girl, who was just eight-years-old, has already instilled fear among the Muslim nomads.

Bakarwals, a poor tribe of nomads, tread across mountains during their biannual migrations from the meadows of Kashmir valley to the hilly forests of Jammu, where some pockets are dominated by ultra-nationalist Hindu groups.

Muhammad Yusuf, 45, Asifa’s uncle who had adopted her when she was a toddler, abandoned Rasana village with his herd of sheep, goats and horses soon after the girl’s body was found. The routine migration was still weeks away, but the new-found fear forced it earlier.

“We left home earlier than usual due to fear. There is a fear among all the Muslim families in Rasana and most of them have left now,” Yusuf said. “We are afraid to go back,” he said.

In the village, where Asifa was raped and killed and later not allowed to be buried, Yusuf said Hindus were always hostile towards Muslims. “Sometimes they would object to our grazing of horses, sometimes they would block the water supply,” he said.

Zafar Chowdhary, author and political analyst based in Jammu, told Al Jazeera that there is a feeling among the Hindus in the state’s Jammu region that Muslims are involved in making demographic changes.

“There is unrest and distrust among the communities in the region particularly on the question of identity in the state,” he said.

The family members of accused in the village have launched a hunger strike demanding that the investigations be done by the federal investigative agency.

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