POLITICAL ANALYSIS
Er Rashid emerging as Gani Lone’s successor in mainstream politics
PC founder’s legacy falls into the lap of a nondescript separatist columnist and Govt official
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Apr 2: “Tum char sau bees hau (You are a cheat)”, Chief Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah grumbled on enfant terrible Abdul Gani Lone on the floor of Legislative Assembly in 1978. Lone quipped back: “Tum aath sau chalees hau (But, you are a cheat of the cheats)”. That was how the Lion of Kashmir and the Lion of Kupwara roared on each other and, in the process, a frail political activist from a penurious rural background emerged as a “threat” for the all-imposing ‘Twinkling Star of Asia’. Earlier, Lone had proved his mettle with his resignation as a Minister in Syed Mir Qasim’s Congress government. Later, he was among the two-odd candidates of then ruling Janata Party who could defeat NC in Kashmir valley in the Assembly elections of 1977. In 1979, Sheikh created a separate revenue district for Kupwara--- alongwith Budgam and Pulwama in Central and South Kashmir, respectively---but Lone forced the government to raise offices of most of the district officers at his hometown of Handwara.
Days before his death in September 1982, Sheikh began the operation of creating a cub to undercut Lone in Handwara. A fresh law graduate from Pune, Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan was catapulted into the fray so forcefully that Lone fought pitched battles but failed to become MLA of Handwara until his end. He floated his own Peoples Conference (PC). In 1983, he polled 17,565 votes against Ramzan’s 17,575. He was still returned impressively from the adjoining parallel constituency of Karnah. It is perhaps because of that ‘battle of the giants’ that Handwara is still a history. Apparently a threat for many of his separatist colleagues in Hurriyat Conference, Lone was assassinated on Iddgah Grounds on the death anniversary of Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq on May 21, 2002.
Lone’s mainstream proxy, Ghulam Mohiuddin Sofi, became the beneficiary of PC’s boycott to the elections as, in 2002, he created the history of Ramzan’s first defeat at the hustings. Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed rewarded Sofi by inducting him as a Minister in his Cabinet and allocating him once Ramzan’s high profile Forest portfolio. Even as Ramzan staged a spectacular comeback and polled the highest number of votes (28,000) among all 2000-odd candidates in Kashmir in the Assembly elections of 2008, electors in the adjoining Langet constituency paid their tributes to Lone by returning one of his ordinary colleagues. A nondescript separatist columnist, who worked as an engineer with J&K Projects Construction Corporation, wore Lone’s mantle in Assembly. Unlike the unassuming Sofi, Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid began doing what his mentor had done decades ago.
Much like Lone, he has been also wavering on postures, making it difficult to understand whether he was NC’s “associate member” or a stanch detractor of Omar Abdullah’s government. Even while defending Omar and making frontal attacks on Mufti’s government, Er Rashid has been on the forefront of the agitation demanding ban on inter-district recruitment in government services. “I have been used” (by NC-led government in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections of 2009) and I am simply asking for the price. I have done it all for the people of my constituency and Kupwara district”, MLA Langet is reported to have said in his last ditch effort of getting his demand conceded.
Rashid seems to have inherited even the suspicion Lone lived with for decades. A many of the coalition leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand---who feels that the ban could lead to “Amarth Sangharsh-like agitation” among the Scheduled Castes---suspect that the all-party agitation was only NC’s gameplan. Interestingly, Rashid has been joined by three of NC’s Kupwara-based MLAs, namely Chowdhary Ramzan, Mir saifullah and Kafeel-ur-Rehman, besides PDP’s lonely Abdul Haq Khan.
In all three of the Assembly sessions so far, Rashid has attained the distinction of attracting maximum number of Speaker’s warnings, reprimands and marshal actions. The way Lone once invited Taliban to Kashmir, in most of his speeches Rashid has sought release of the hardliner militant ideologue Dr Qasim from jail. This Jamiatul Mujahideen top man has been serving a life term in Srinagar Central Jail for having ordered human rights activist Hridhay Nath Wanchoo’s murder in 1992. He also happens to be the husband of Dukhtaraan-e-Millat Chairperson, Asiya Andrabi. Rashid has even eclipsed PDP in its refrain of “maslaa Kashmir” (solve the political problem of Kashmir). He has gone a step farther by demanding Jammu’s separation from Kashmir.
Lone’s heir apparent in mainstream politics, Rashid has had luck on his side. While his colleague of years and fiery mentor, Sajjad Lone, blew hot and hold with regard to the option of directly participating in the elections in 2008, Rashid took the dangerous decision. He exploited a menacing anti-incumbency factor against the NC stalwart Sharief-ud-din Shariq and PDP leader Mohammad Sultan Panditpuri and trounced both in a multi-cornered contest in Langet.
As Gani Lone’s advocate daughter, Shabnam, lost to NC’s Mir Saifullah in Kupwara segment, Rashid became the undisputed custodian of Lone’s legacy in the mainstream politics. That provoked the real heir apparent, Sajjad Lone, to jump into the fray of Lok Sabha elections next spring but it proved to be too late. Even in his strongest segments of Handwara and Kupwara, Sajjad suffered a dressing down at the hands of NC’s Ramzan and Saifullah who maintained impressive lead for Shariq. Sajjad discovered that he had lost the bus to his proxy, Sofi, in 2002 and Rashid had already laid his hands on the achievable knighthood. This left Abdul Gani Lone’s elder son, Bilal Lone, to be his undisputed successor in separatist politics.
While Lone’s progeny has been, perhaps unsuccessfully, struggling for space in Kashmir’s politics, a number of his old trusted colleagues and PC founders have also landed in the present Assembly. Besides Rashid, they include Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Nizam-ud-din Bhat , Abdul Haq Khan (now all in PDP) and Mohammad Akbar Lone, now Speaker and NC’s MLA from Sumbal Sonawari.
END
Friday, April 2, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
RAPE OF POLITICS
....and where are those Mehboobas, Shameemas, Asiyas today?
Selective condemnation of rape and murder has become bane of J&K politics
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
JAMMU, Mar 30: Hullabaloo over then widely perceived rape-cum-murder of two young woman, married Neelofar Jan and unmarried Asiya Jan, of Shopian in May last year was understandable as well as justifiable. Jostling for the limelight, female politicians of all hues had done whatever possible to undercut one another in the race of smudging the men in uniform. There were initially efforts to involve the Balpora-based formation of Rashtriya Rifles. Soon the campaign was downgraded to a unit of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). But once both proved to be the hard nuts, convenience zeroed in on Police. Even as two of the Police personnel, detained for their alleged involvement in destroying the evidences, were just a vegetarian target, counter-insurgency profile of then SP and Dy SP of Shopian made it a perfect case for a mass movement.
For weeks together, Kashmir was yet again in flames. Eight people got killed, and around 1,000 sustained injuries in clashes with Police and armed forces. Over a thousand vehicles, including 50 ambulances of different hospitals in the Valley, were damaged in stone pelting. There was shutdown after shutdown for four months. Damage caused to the Kashmir economy is estimated to be in hundreds of Crores of Rupees. Loss suffered by the student community remained incalculable. Why all that? Obviously because government officials, supposed to protect the honour and life of women, were perceived to be involved in the sinister act of outraging the modesty of the victims and doing away with them.
Within months, yet another government official---this time a doctor on whose evidence stood the “rape-cum-murder” of the Shopian duo---has been found to have outraged the chastity of a hapless woman at his clinic at the nearby district headquarters of Pulwama. There are few differences between the two. First one was fully based on surmise, speculation and perception. Post mortem reports of two teams of doctors made it an explosive case of gang rape and murder. Actors need not to be searched in such kind of incidents in the strife torn Valley. Second one has been purportedly shot on camera and the actor stands not only identified but also placed under suspension, arrested and jailed.
In case of Shopian, the victims were found to have died once. In case of Pulwama, the victim has been left to die a hundred times every day as long as she lives. The latest revelation is that she happens to be the mother of a girl doing first year of her MBBS and a 17-year-old son who is in class 11th. Shopian happened by night in a nullah and Pulwama in broad daylight during the holy month of Ramazan, at a property owned by a religious trust. Then, why an uproar on Shopian and a silence of convenience on Pulwama? The biggest poser of the cruel times in Kashmir: Is it the outfits of an actor that categorizes rapes in the Valley? Had the Pulwama actor been in Khaki, would the Kashmiri politicians have maintained this silence. The questions ahead: Are the Kashmiri female politicians concerned over the outrage of the modesty of hapless women by government officials or are they exploiting such incidents selectively to create space for themselves in the politics of deceit and camouflage that has had a bullish market from New Delhi to Islamabad?
PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, and the pro-Pakistan Dukhataraan-e-Millat supremo, Asiya Andrabi, stole the show in Shopian as they left no stone unturned in berating the men in uniform. That was understandable for one was the queen of the mainstream opposition and another indisputably the highest profile female political activist in the separatist camp. But the ruling National Conference’s MLA, Shameema Firdaus, appeared to outsmart all and sundry in the agitation when she led a procession of workers on Residency Road in Srinagar, chanting slogans against the Shopian rapists and killers and demanding exemplary punishment for them all.
Of late, Shameema Firdaus, has been appointed by Omar Abdullah government as the Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission. While Asiya and her ilk in the separatist camp must have now realized the dangers of walking into the trap of pro-India politicians, PDP chief has never been sighted in Assembly since the day Pulwama surfaced on March 21. Ms Firdaus remained in attendance but did not utter a word of condemnation even when the independent MLA from Langet, Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid, raised his lonely voice on the floor of the House and demanded termination of the doctor’s services.
Until yesterday, the big question was: How could the two women have drowned to death in “ankle deep waters” of Rambiara ? After CBI exonerated all the four Policemen and filed a chargesheet against 13 persons, including six doctors---notably then deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, now booked for raping a woman at his clinic---a bigger question surfaced: How do the gang rapes in Valley take place while leaving hymen of an unmarried woman intact? Now a far bigger question: Is it all politics on rape or rape of politics---to spare the rapists in civvies and target only the rapists in uniform?
END
....and where are those Mehboobas, Shameemas, Asiyas today?
Selective condemnation of rape and murder has become bane of J&K politics
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
JAMMU, Mar 30: Hullabaloo over then widely perceived rape-cum-murder of two young woman, married Neelofar Jan and unmarried Asiya Jan, of Shopian in May last year was understandable as well as justifiable. Jostling for the limelight, female politicians of all hues had done whatever possible to undercut one another in the race of smudging the men in uniform. There were initially efforts to involve the Balpora-based formation of Rashtriya Rifles. Soon the campaign was downgraded to a unit of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). But once both proved to be the hard nuts, convenience zeroed in on Police. Even as two of the Police personnel, detained for their alleged involvement in destroying the evidences, were just a vegetarian target, counter-insurgency profile of then SP and Dy SP of Shopian made it a perfect case for a mass movement.
For weeks together, Kashmir was yet again in flames. Eight people got killed, and around 1,000 sustained injuries in clashes with Police and armed forces. Over a thousand vehicles, including 50 ambulances of different hospitals in the Valley, were damaged in stone pelting. There was shutdown after shutdown for four months. Damage caused to the Kashmir economy is estimated to be in hundreds of Crores of Rupees. Loss suffered by the student community remained incalculable. Why all that? Obviously because government officials, supposed to protect the honour and life of women, were perceived to be involved in the sinister act of outraging the modesty of the victims and doing away with them.
Within months, yet another government official---this time a doctor on whose evidence stood the “rape-cum-murder” of the Shopian duo---has been found to have outraged the chastity of a hapless woman at his clinic at the nearby district headquarters of Pulwama. There are few differences between the two. First one was fully based on surmise, speculation and perception. Post mortem reports of two teams of doctors made it an explosive case of gang rape and murder. Actors need not to be searched in such kind of incidents in the strife torn Valley. Second one has been purportedly shot on camera and the actor stands not only identified but also placed under suspension, arrested and jailed.
In case of Shopian, the victims were found to have died once. In case of Pulwama, the victim has been left to die a hundred times every day as long as she lives. The latest revelation is that she happens to be the mother of a girl doing first year of her MBBS and a 17-year-old son who is in class 11th. Shopian happened by night in a nullah and Pulwama in broad daylight during the holy month of Ramazan, at a property owned by a religious trust. Then, why an uproar on Shopian and a silence of convenience on Pulwama? The biggest poser of the cruel times in Kashmir: Is it the outfits of an actor that categorizes rapes in the Valley? Had the Pulwama actor been in Khaki, would the Kashmiri politicians have maintained this silence. The questions ahead: Are the Kashmiri female politicians concerned over the outrage of the modesty of hapless women by government officials or are they exploiting such incidents selectively to create space for themselves in the politics of deceit and camouflage that has had a bullish market from New Delhi to Islamabad?
PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, and the pro-Pakistan Dukhataraan-e-Millat supremo, Asiya Andrabi, stole the show in Shopian as they left no stone unturned in berating the men in uniform. That was understandable for one was the queen of the mainstream opposition and another indisputably the highest profile female political activist in the separatist camp. But the ruling National Conference’s MLA, Shameema Firdaus, appeared to outsmart all and sundry in the agitation when she led a procession of workers on Residency Road in Srinagar, chanting slogans against the Shopian rapists and killers and demanding exemplary punishment for them all.
Of late, Shameema Firdaus, has been appointed by Omar Abdullah government as the Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission. While Asiya and her ilk in the separatist camp must have now realized the dangers of walking into the trap of pro-India politicians, PDP chief has never been sighted in Assembly since the day Pulwama surfaced on March 21. Ms Firdaus remained in attendance but did not utter a word of condemnation even when the independent MLA from Langet, Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid, raised his lonely voice on the floor of the House and demanded termination of the doctor’s services.
Until yesterday, the big question was: How could the two women have drowned to death in “ankle deep waters” of Rambiara ? After CBI exonerated all the four Policemen and filed a chargesheet against 13 persons, including six doctors---notably then deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, now booked for raping a woman at his clinic---a bigger question surfaced: How do the gang rapes in Valley take place while leaving hymen of an unmarried woman intact? Now a far bigger question: Is it all politics on rape or rape of politics---to spare the rapists in civvies and target only the rapists in uniform?
END
Monday, March 29, 2010
From Farooq’s joyride with Shabana to Omar’s chatting on BlackBerry
Calling the Abdullahs ‘non-serious’ has been the Muftis’ ace in a political chess game
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
JAMMU, Mar 29: It is now over a year since the state’s youngest Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, enjoyed skiing on the alpine slopes of Afarwat on the day of his reply to the discussion on Governor’s address in the Legislative Assembly. He appeared on the scheduled time of his turn, at 4.00 p.m dot and got a bonus of one full hour as few of the MLAs demanded more time to make their points. Inspite of being absent for noticeable durations and having listened to not more than five speakers, he began replying to the debate and was heard making one of the most impressive speeches of his 11-year-long political career. He was plush with his party’s victory at the hustings and the Muftis were in the thick of reconciling to PDP’s defeat. Just the men like Panthers Party’s Harsh Dev Singh noticed Omar’s absence and made a modestly reformative comment.
As soon as PDP’s pain of the defeat receded, Muzaffar Hussain Baig did not lose a second to fire the salvo during the Budget session in Srinagar. It was indeed not an eloquent speech on the corruption tainted officials getting plum positions, land mafias grabbing the state land, financial mismanagement or bad governance. It was something that sells, like many parts of the country, in Jammu & Kashmir: Chief Minister’s and also his father’s “name in the shame list” (Srinagar sex scandal of 2007). Driven by his gut, Omar refused to listen to his party colleagues and friends and played what was indisputably the most dangerous game of his past and future political career. More than his age, his stars were strongly on his side and Baig’s gun almost backfired.
NC’s nincompoops did much of their dancing over the failure of what they called a “made in Papa 2” plot---an allegation that Baig was just an actor and the producers, directors and scriptwriters were all occupants of the former Chief Minister’s residence. What they failed to understand was that the same old armoury of 1980s was being invoked to pull down the prince in modern Kashmir’s battle royal.
In sharp contrast to his charismatic father, Farooq Abdullah was projected by his detractors as a joker. Suffering a deficit of his practical knowledge of the Valley’s social sensibilities, he exposed himself to every onslaught---by boarding the SRTC’s buses and checking the tickets of commuters, rushing to the National High School to douse the flames with his bucket, performing as a disco dancer and taking Shabana Azmi for a joyride on his motorcycle to Gulmarg.
The gameplan of labeling him “non serious” and a “man of easy virtues” consummated in late 1980s when Srinagar Doordarshan created its most popular “Hazaar Daastaan” and every watcher of the political satire began identifying Farooq with the clown king “Ahad Raza”. The serial was aborted under then Chief Minister’s strong protest but not before scores of its episodes had gone on air. By the time Farooq woke up, it was too late.
Being young becomes a disqualification when it comes to learning why Mr Baig was now pasting the cliché of Ahad Raza on Farooq’s successor. Irony is that whatever is expunged in legislature, gains circulation outside. It is not obviously without purpose that the Abdullahs are still being projected as “lesser Kashmiris” and “lesser Muslims”. Days before today’s accusation of“non seriousness”, Mr Baig had called the Chief Minister as “dau tihayi angrez” (two-third European) well on the floor of the House.
PDP seems to be confident that creating the image of non-serious, non-resident, inattentive, fun-loving Chief Minister would continue to sell in J&K much more than building an attack on the real issues like employment, governance and accountability. She has the facts on her side: trapping the coalition in a rape-and-murder that is now proved by CBI not to have happened, perhaps artificially manufactured with the help of men and women of political agenda in the noble professions of medicine, law and media; making Omar believe that his father’s hardcore diatribe against Pakistan was the fundamental reason of NC’s defeat in 2002 Assembly elections; forcing the NC to mug the refrain of “dialogue with militants, dialogue with separatists et al.
Even if, as the Home Minister of the country’s most sensitive state, he is addressing an urgent security related issue with Home Minister Chidambaram and Defence Minister Antony, Omar Abdullah is simply walking into the Opposition’s old trap by sporting his BlackBerry in the Assembly.
END
Calling the Abdullahs ‘non-serious’ has been the Muftis’ ace in a political chess game
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
JAMMU, Mar 29: It is now over a year since the state’s youngest Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, enjoyed skiing on the alpine slopes of Afarwat on the day of his reply to the discussion on Governor’s address in the Legislative Assembly. He appeared on the scheduled time of his turn, at 4.00 p.m dot and got a bonus of one full hour as few of the MLAs demanded more time to make their points. Inspite of being absent for noticeable durations and having listened to not more than five speakers, he began replying to the debate and was heard making one of the most impressive speeches of his 11-year-long political career. He was plush with his party’s victory at the hustings and the Muftis were in the thick of reconciling to PDP’s defeat. Just the men like Panthers Party’s Harsh Dev Singh noticed Omar’s absence and made a modestly reformative comment.
As soon as PDP’s pain of the defeat receded, Muzaffar Hussain Baig did not lose a second to fire the salvo during the Budget session in Srinagar. It was indeed not an eloquent speech on the corruption tainted officials getting plum positions, land mafias grabbing the state land, financial mismanagement or bad governance. It was something that sells, like many parts of the country, in Jammu & Kashmir: Chief Minister’s and also his father’s “name in the shame list” (Srinagar sex scandal of 2007). Driven by his gut, Omar refused to listen to his party colleagues and friends and played what was indisputably the most dangerous game of his past and future political career. More than his age, his stars were strongly on his side and Baig’s gun almost backfired.
NC’s nincompoops did much of their dancing over the failure of what they called a “made in Papa 2” plot---an allegation that Baig was just an actor and the producers, directors and scriptwriters were all occupants of the former Chief Minister’s residence. What they failed to understand was that the same old armoury of 1980s was being invoked to pull down the prince in modern Kashmir’s battle royal.
In sharp contrast to his charismatic father, Farooq Abdullah was projected by his detractors as a joker. Suffering a deficit of his practical knowledge of the Valley’s social sensibilities, he exposed himself to every onslaught---by boarding the SRTC’s buses and checking the tickets of commuters, rushing to the National High School to douse the flames with his bucket, performing as a disco dancer and taking Shabana Azmi for a joyride on his motorcycle to Gulmarg.
The gameplan of labeling him “non serious” and a “man of easy virtues” consummated in late 1980s when Srinagar Doordarshan created its most popular “Hazaar Daastaan” and every watcher of the political satire began identifying Farooq with the clown king “Ahad Raza”. The serial was aborted under then Chief Minister’s strong protest but not before scores of its episodes had gone on air. By the time Farooq woke up, it was too late.
Being young becomes a disqualification when it comes to learning why Mr Baig was now pasting the cliché of Ahad Raza on Farooq’s successor. Irony is that whatever is expunged in legislature, gains circulation outside. It is not obviously without purpose that the Abdullahs are still being projected as “lesser Kashmiris” and “lesser Muslims”. Days before today’s accusation of“non seriousness”, Mr Baig had called the Chief Minister as “dau tihayi angrez” (two-third European) well on the floor of the House.
PDP seems to be confident that creating the image of non-serious, non-resident, inattentive, fun-loving Chief Minister would continue to sell in J&K much more than building an attack on the real issues like employment, governance and accountability. She has the facts on her side: trapping the coalition in a rape-and-murder that is now proved by CBI not to have happened, perhaps artificially manufactured with the help of men and women of political agenda in the noble professions of medicine, law and media; making Omar believe that his father’s hardcore diatribe against Pakistan was the fundamental reason of NC’s defeat in 2002 Assembly elections; forcing the NC to mug the refrain of “dialogue with militants, dialogue with separatists et al.
Even if, as the Home Minister of the country’s most sensitive state, he is addressing an urgent security related issue with Home Minister Chidambaram and Defence Minister Antony, Omar Abdullah is simply walking into the Opposition’s old trap by sporting his BlackBerry in the Assembly.
END
Friday, March 26, 2010
Dr Sofi remanded to judicial custody, lodged in Central Jail
Another cellphone user’s statement recorded by Chief Judicial Magistrate
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Mar 26: Booked and arrested in the offence of committing rape on a female patient at his clinic, suspended Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Pulwama district, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, has been shifted to Srinagar and lodged in Central Jail after Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) remanded him to judicial custody today.
Informed sources in south Kashmir told Early Times that Police today produced Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi before CJM Pulwama, Mr Aijaz Ahmed Khan, who remanded the suspended CMO to judicial custody till April 5th. Thereafter, Dr Sofi was shifted to Srinagar where he was lodged in a barrack of the Central Jail. Sources said that Police arranged Sofi’s transportation to the capital city secretly so as to protect him from public wrath. According to reports, hundreds of people, who seem to be outraged and angry over the CMO’s immoral act on a woman patient, had gathered at the district headquarters. They seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to harm the accused.
Sensing the trouble, Police shifted the CMO to Srinagar and residents came to know about it hours later. Even as the markets were open for business, there was widespread condemnation to the rape of a hapless woman that, according to Police investigation, has been committed in the holy month of Ramazan in September last year and recorded by two persons on a mobile phone. Imam of the local Jamia Masjid expressed concern over the moral turpitude of government officials and involvement of certain people with the immoral activity. In his sermon at the Friday afternoon mass prayers, he advised residents to hold an introspection of the society and arrest the rot before it assumed menacing proportions.
After the prayers conclude, over a hundred people formed a procession which proceeded towards a major market while shouting pro-Islam slogans. Participants, expressing their anger over the CMO’s immoral act, were heard shouting slogans like “berahravi band karo”. As soon as some of the participants began shouting anti-government slogans, the procession was terminated by the organizers.
CJM Pulwama today recorded the statement of another mobile phone user, identified as Hilal Ahmed, under section 164 Cr PC. Statement of his associate, Altaf Ahmed, and owner of the Nokia used in secretly shooting the CMO’s rape on the woman, namely Bashir Ahmed, had been recorded at the court of CJM Pulwama yesterday. As already reported, the mobile phone, that has been seized by Police, after seizing a widely circulated video clip of the rape, has been sent for forensic examination to Chandigarh-based Forensic Science Laboratory of Central Crime Detection Training School. Investigators are expecting a report from the FSL within a week’s time.
Sources said that Police were still questioning the victim of the rape and her statement was likely to be recorded in the court under section 164 Cr PC in a couple of days.
END
Another cellphone user’s statement recorded by Chief Judicial Magistrate
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Mar 26: Booked and arrested in the offence of committing rape on a female patient at his clinic, suspended Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Pulwama district, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, has been shifted to Srinagar and lodged in Central Jail after Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) remanded him to judicial custody today.
Informed sources in south Kashmir told Early Times that Police today produced Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi before CJM Pulwama, Mr Aijaz Ahmed Khan, who remanded the suspended CMO to judicial custody till April 5th. Thereafter, Dr Sofi was shifted to Srinagar where he was lodged in a barrack of the Central Jail. Sources said that Police arranged Sofi’s transportation to the capital city secretly so as to protect him from public wrath. According to reports, hundreds of people, who seem to be outraged and angry over the CMO’s immoral act on a woman patient, had gathered at the district headquarters. They seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to harm the accused.
Sensing the trouble, Police shifted the CMO to Srinagar and residents came to know about it hours later. Even as the markets were open for business, there was widespread condemnation to the rape of a hapless woman that, according to Police investigation, has been committed in the holy month of Ramazan in September last year and recorded by two persons on a mobile phone. Imam of the local Jamia Masjid expressed concern over the moral turpitude of government officials and involvement of certain people with the immoral activity. In his sermon at the Friday afternoon mass prayers, he advised residents to hold an introspection of the society and arrest the rot before it assumed menacing proportions.
After the prayers conclude, over a hundred people formed a procession which proceeded towards a major market while shouting pro-Islam slogans. Participants, expressing their anger over the CMO’s immoral act, were heard shouting slogans like “berahravi band karo”. As soon as some of the participants began shouting anti-government slogans, the procession was terminated by the organizers.
CJM Pulwama today recorded the statement of another mobile phone user, identified as Hilal Ahmed, under section 164 Cr PC. Statement of his associate, Altaf Ahmed, and owner of the Nokia used in secretly shooting the CMO’s rape on the woman, namely Bashir Ahmed, had been recorded at the court of CJM Pulwama yesterday. As already reported, the mobile phone, that has been seized by Police, after seizing a widely circulated video clip of the rape, has been sent for forensic examination to Chandigarh-based Forensic Science Laboratory of Central Crime Detection Training School. Investigators are expecting a report from the FSL within a week’s time.
Sources said that Police were still questioning the victim of the rape and her statement was likely to be recorded in the court under section 164 Cr PC in a couple of days.
END
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Dr Sofi arrested, cellphone seized, statements recorded by CJM Pulwama
CMO found to have raped married patient at clinic in holy month of Ramazan
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Mar 25: In a major breakthrough in the rape of a woman at an illegally operating clinic in Pulwama, Police have identified the victim as a patient and mother of two young children, arrested the already suspended Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, seized the mobile phone used in recording the crime, sent it for forensic analysis to FSL in Chandigarh and got statements of the amateur videographers recorded in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Pulwama. Technology led the Police to discover that Dr Sofi had committed rape on his patient not only at a property belonging to Pulwama Auqaf but also in broad daylight in the holy month of Ramazan.
Informed sources revealed to Early Times that a team of Pulwama District Police has finally succeeded in identifying two persons, who had recorded a doctor’s rape being committed on a young woman, as well as the victim of the crime who turned out to be mother of two young children and a patient of the CMO Pulwama, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi. Sources said that Dr Sofi, who had been placed under suspension on charges of moral turpitude on March 20th, was formally arrested and put behind the bars at Police Station Pulwama today as the victim of his crime as well as the mobile phone users revealed that the act had taken place at a clinic in Rajpora Chowk of Pulwama in September last year. Immediately after his suspension on March 20th, Police had registered FIR against the CMO under section 376 (D) and had been questioning him since March 21st but he was formally arrested only today.
SSP Pulwama, Syed Kifayat Haider, confirmed to Early Times that during the course of preliminary investigation, Police has identified and arrested two persons who had used their mobile phone in recording the rape of a woman at a doctor’s clinic in Pulwama. He confirmed that the mobile phone used in the crime has been seized and sent for forensic examination, alongwith a video clip that had been already seized by Police, to Chandigarh-based Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) of Central Crime Detection Training School (CDTS). He said that the statement of the mobile phone users was recorded today by CJM Pulwama under section 164 Cr PC and that of the woman identified would be recorded in a couple of days. He declined to disclose details while pleading that such revelations could hamper the process of investigation.
However, sources believed to be informed about the developments, said that the detained mobile phone users, who have been identified as Hilal and Bashir of two villages in Pulwama outskirts, made bizarre disclosures during their questioning first to Police and later in their statement recorded at a court. They revealed that Dr Sofi had committed the rape on a woman who was one of his female patients. They claimed to have shot the video with a Nokia after they removed tape from a hole in the window without the knowledge of the doctor and the victim. When asked as to what was their motive, they said that they had recorded the horrible sexually explicit scenes “just for fun”. They stated that the act had taken place at Dr Sofi’s clinic on first floor of a building belonging to Pulwama Auqaf in the holy month of Ramazan last year. Police have seized the Nokia used in shooting of the crime.
Sources said that the film was found to have been shot in the afternoon on 11th of Ramazan last year (September 2009) at 01.29 p.m.
One of the mobile phone users described himself as a laboratory technician working at a private clinic and another a salesman working at a chemist’s shop in Pulwama.
Sources said that the victim of the rape has been identified as a resident of another village in Pulwama outskirts. According to sources, she stated that Dr Sofi had sexually exploited her with the promise of getting her recruited in government service. In her early 30s, she happens to be mother of two young children.
Reports from Pulwama, meanwhile, said disclosure of the suspended CMO’s rape on a young woman at his clinic had sent shockwaves throughout the south Kashmir districts of Pulwama and Shopian where people were planning demonstrations on Friday. They are now reportedly demanding cancellation of Dr Sofi’s registration and termination of his services.
As already reported, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi has been in news since last year when some doctors had publicly claimed that two young women, namely Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan, had been raped and killed in May 2009 in Shopian. It was on their reports that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Jammu &n Kashmir Police had arrested then SP of Shopian, Javed Iqbal Matoo, Dy SP of Shopian, Rohit Basgotra, SHO Shopian and a Sub Inspector on the charges of their involvement in the rape and murder of the two young woman and destroying evidences. However, during an investigation, CBI exonerated all the four Police officials and instead framed charges of getting the innocent implicated with false and fabricated evidences in a crime that could get them capital punishment against six doctors, including gynecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen and then Deputy CMO, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, besides five Shopian-based lawyers.
Contrary to her earlier statements made before SIT and Jan Commission of Inquiry, gynecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen later revealed to CBI that she had not conducted any per vaginal on the two dead bodies. She had previously sweared by the holy scripture and claimed publicly that she had found the two women raped and murdered. Later, she revealed to CBI that she had actually collected the vaginal swab from the surgical gloves used on a number of married female patients at District Hospital of Shopian and sent the same to CSFL as the vaginal swab of Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan so as to establish it as an incident of gang rape. She claimed to have sent another swab from a source not worth mentioning.
According to the chargesheet CBI has produced against six doctors and five lawyers in a court of law on December 14, 2009, Dr Nighat had fudged the vaginal swab slides on the influence and persuasion of then Deputy CMO of Pulwama Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi. Interestingly, rather than being subjected to any disciplinary action, Omar Abdullah government’s Minister of Health Sham Lal Sharma had promoted Dr Sofi to the post of CMO Pulwama in September 2009, around the days of his committing rape on a woman patient at his clinic. It was around the same time that Omar government’s Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Mohammad Sagar, appointed one of the tainted lawyers as the government’s Public Prosecutor in District and Sessions Court of Shopian.
END
CMO found to have raped married patient at clinic in holy month of Ramazan
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Mar 25: In a major breakthrough in the rape of a woman at an illegally operating clinic in Pulwama, Police have identified the victim as a patient and mother of two young children, arrested the already suspended Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, seized the mobile phone used in recording the crime, sent it for forensic analysis to FSL in Chandigarh and got statements of the amateur videographers recorded in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Pulwama. Technology led the Police to discover that Dr Sofi had committed rape on his patient not only at a property belonging to Pulwama Auqaf but also in broad daylight in the holy month of Ramazan.
Informed sources revealed to Early Times that a team of Pulwama District Police has finally succeeded in identifying two persons, who had recorded a doctor’s rape being committed on a young woman, as well as the victim of the crime who turned out to be mother of two young children and a patient of the CMO Pulwama, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi. Sources said that Dr Sofi, who had been placed under suspension on charges of moral turpitude on March 20th, was formally arrested and put behind the bars at Police Station Pulwama today as the victim of his crime as well as the mobile phone users revealed that the act had taken place at a clinic in Rajpora Chowk of Pulwama in September last year. Immediately after his suspension on March 20th, Police had registered FIR against the CMO under section 376 (D) and had been questioning him since March 21st but he was formally arrested only today.
SSP Pulwama, Syed Kifayat Haider, confirmed to Early Times that during the course of preliminary investigation, Police has identified and arrested two persons who had used their mobile phone in recording the rape of a woman at a doctor’s clinic in Pulwama. He confirmed that the mobile phone used in the crime has been seized and sent for forensic examination, alongwith a video clip that had been already seized by Police, to Chandigarh-based Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) of Central Crime Detection Training School (CDTS). He said that the statement of the mobile phone users was recorded today by CJM Pulwama under section 164 Cr PC and that of the woman identified would be recorded in a couple of days. He declined to disclose details while pleading that such revelations could hamper the process of investigation.
However, sources believed to be informed about the developments, said that the detained mobile phone users, who have been identified as Hilal and Bashir of two villages in Pulwama outskirts, made bizarre disclosures during their questioning first to Police and later in their statement recorded at a court. They revealed that Dr Sofi had committed the rape on a woman who was one of his female patients. They claimed to have shot the video with a Nokia after they removed tape from a hole in the window without the knowledge of the doctor and the victim. When asked as to what was their motive, they said that they had recorded the horrible sexually explicit scenes “just for fun”. They stated that the act had taken place at Dr Sofi’s clinic on first floor of a building belonging to Pulwama Auqaf in the holy month of Ramazan last year. Police have seized the Nokia used in shooting of the crime.
Sources said that the film was found to have been shot in the afternoon on 11th of Ramazan last year (September 2009) at 01.29 p.m.
One of the mobile phone users described himself as a laboratory technician working at a private clinic and another a salesman working at a chemist’s shop in Pulwama.
Sources said that the victim of the rape has been identified as a resident of another village in Pulwama outskirts. According to sources, she stated that Dr Sofi had sexually exploited her with the promise of getting her recruited in government service. In her early 30s, she happens to be mother of two young children.
Reports from Pulwama, meanwhile, said disclosure of the suspended CMO’s rape on a young woman at his clinic had sent shockwaves throughout the south Kashmir districts of Pulwama and Shopian where people were planning demonstrations on Friday. They are now reportedly demanding cancellation of Dr Sofi’s registration and termination of his services.
As already reported, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi has been in news since last year when some doctors had publicly claimed that two young women, namely Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan, had been raped and killed in May 2009 in Shopian. It was on their reports that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Jammu &n Kashmir Police had arrested then SP of Shopian, Javed Iqbal Matoo, Dy SP of Shopian, Rohit Basgotra, SHO Shopian and a Sub Inspector on the charges of their involvement in the rape and murder of the two young woman and destroying evidences. However, during an investigation, CBI exonerated all the four Police officials and instead framed charges of getting the innocent implicated with false and fabricated evidences in a crime that could get them capital punishment against six doctors, including gynecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen and then Deputy CMO, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, besides five Shopian-based lawyers.
Contrary to her earlier statements made before SIT and Jan Commission of Inquiry, gynecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen later revealed to CBI that she had not conducted any per vaginal on the two dead bodies. She had previously sweared by the holy scripture and claimed publicly that she had found the two women raped and murdered. Later, she revealed to CBI that she had actually collected the vaginal swab from the surgical gloves used on a number of married female patients at District Hospital of Shopian and sent the same to CSFL as the vaginal swab of Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan so as to establish it as an incident of gang rape. She claimed to have sent another swab from a source not worth mentioning.
According to the chargesheet CBI has produced against six doctors and five lawyers in a court of law on December 14, 2009, Dr Nighat had fudged the vaginal swab slides on the influence and persuasion of then Deputy CMO of Pulwama Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi. Interestingly, rather than being subjected to any disciplinary action, Omar Abdullah government’s Minister of Health Sham Lal Sharma had promoted Dr Sofi to the post of CMO Pulwama in September 2009, around the days of his committing rape on a woman patient at his clinic. It was around the same time that Omar government’s Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Mohammad Sagar, appointed one of the tainted lawyers as the government’s Public Prosecutor in District and Sessions Court of Shopian.
END
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Why Er Rashid alone seeks action against suspended CMO
Continued silence on Pulwama rape has exposed NC’s, PDP’s double standards
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Mar 23: One has essentially got to be a resident Kashmiri to understand why all and sundry of politics in the Valley were up in arms over the alleged rape-cum-murder of two young woman in Shopian and why the poor Independent MLA from Langet is lonely in condemning a senior doctor’s rape on a hapless young woman at his clinic in Pulwama. Four Policemen, who were widely perceived to have either committed rape and murder on Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan of Shopian or mutilated the evidences to shield the “real culprits”, were officials of the state government. Chief Medical Officer of Pulwama, who has been captured on video while committing rape on a young woman at his illegally operating clinic in the adjoining Pulwama district, is also an employee of the state government. So, why an uproar over the rape done in Shopian and total silence on the other exposed in Pulwama?
There is one difference between the two. The ‘victims’ were found dead in Shopian and the victim in Pulwama will have to die a many times everyday as long as she lives. There is yet another difference: That of Shopian was based more on perception than on material scientific evidence and that of Pulwama stands recorded on a video which has been watched by most of the Kashmiri politicians and mediapersons but not disputed by any one of them. While the politicians---from Hurriyat to National Conference---have been tightlipped on the horrible incident in Pulwama, media has underplayed it to the extent of a dry filler.
Isn’t then the third difference between the two episodes most meaningful: SP Javed Matoo and Dy SP Rohit Basgotra have killed militants while working in Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police and the South Kashmir doctors---gynecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen and CMO Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi in particular---have had the honour of confirming rape and murder of the Shopian females and thus getting the Police officers in the dock. It is easy to imagine what the situation would have been today in Kashmir if the rapist would have been from Police or any other counter-insurgent group. It would have been simply ‘Ragda 2010’ and Omar Abdullah’s government would have fallen in the last three days.
Thus a hundred rapes, recorded on camera, shall have to be ignored if done by someone who has done the great service of raping the dignity of India’s soldiers in Kashmir! The constraint is understandable not only for the Valley’s separatist camp that has been at war with India for 20 years but also for the mainstream Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has been desperately trying to steal Hurriyat’s domain for New Delhi since 1999. It is also understandable for the National Conference-led coalition government of Mr Omar Abdullah who has taken over not only the charge of the new Chief Minister but also every bit of the PDP agenda to the extent that the present dispensation appears to be simply an extension of the Mufti-led regime of 2002-05.
Because of this inheritance, Omar has outsmarted PDP in Shopian. Mufti had spent only Rs 9 Lakh of the poor taxpayers’ money on Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s release from Ranchi Jail, his helicopter flight and the treatment at a hospital in Mumbai. Omar has gone a step further by spending Rs 13 Lakh on hiring the services of the country’s leading lawyers only to ensure that none of the Police officials arrested in Shopian gets bail from any court of law. Thus both have got to be tightlipped on the rape in Pulwama that involves a doctor already rewarded by the government for his “honesty and integrity”. Those who must be waiting for cancellation of Dr Sofi’s registration by the competent authority at Directorate of Health Services Kashmir may be living in a fool’s paradise. Departmental inquiry is bound to end up as an eyewash as the current session of Legislature in Jammu has not sent any note of alarm to Srinagar.
The unmoved motion against the CMO has already failed in 1:88 for MLA Langet Engineer Rashid has been the one-odd peoples’ representative disturbed by the rape in Pulwama. Congress may not be essentially permissive of the guilt committed by India-bashers but it has no cause of action as the incident has taken place in Kashmir, not in Jammu or Ladakh. BJP’s what-to-us is equally comprehensible as the victim has the disqualification of being a Muslim and the additional disqualification of being a Kashmiri.
This perhaps explains why those indicted by Jan Commission and our own separatist-friendly SIT are rounded up in seconds and those held guilty by CBI are continuously working as government advocates and government doctors.
END
Continued silence on Pulwama rape has exposed NC’s, PDP’s double standards
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Mar 23: One has essentially got to be a resident Kashmiri to understand why all and sundry of politics in the Valley were up in arms over the alleged rape-cum-murder of two young woman in Shopian and why the poor Independent MLA from Langet is lonely in condemning a senior doctor’s rape on a hapless young woman at his clinic in Pulwama. Four Policemen, who were widely perceived to have either committed rape and murder on Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan of Shopian or mutilated the evidences to shield the “real culprits”, were officials of the state government. Chief Medical Officer of Pulwama, who has been captured on video while committing rape on a young woman at his illegally operating clinic in the adjoining Pulwama district, is also an employee of the state government. So, why an uproar over the rape done in Shopian and total silence on the other exposed in Pulwama?
There is one difference between the two. The ‘victims’ were found dead in Shopian and the victim in Pulwama will have to die a many times everyday as long as she lives. There is yet another difference: That of Shopian was based more on perception than on material scientific evidence and that of Pulwama stands recorded on a video which has been watched by most of the Kashmiri politicians and mediapersons but not disputed by any one of them. While the politicians---from Hurriyat to National Conference---have been tightlipped on the horrible incident in Pulwama, media has underplayed it to the extent of a dry filler.
Isn’t then the third difference between the two episodes most meaningful: SP Javed Matoo and Dy SP Rohit Basgotra have killed militants while working in Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police and the South Kashmir doctors---gynecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen and CMO Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi in particular---have had the honour of confirming rape and murder of the Shopian females and thus getting the Police officers in the dock. It is easy to imagine what the situation would have been today in Kashmir if the rapist would have been from Police or any other counter-insurgent group. It would have been simply ‘Ragda 2010’ and Omar Abdullah’s government would have fallen in the last three days.
Thus a hundred rapes, recorded on camera, shall have to be ignored if done by someone who has done the great service of raping the dignity of India’s soldiers in Kashmir! The constraint is understandable not only for the Valley’s separatist camp that has been at war with India for 20 years but also for the mainstream Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has been desperately trying to steal Hurriyat’s domain for New Delhi since 1999. It is also understandable for the National Conference-led coalition government of Mr Omar Abdullah who has taken over not only the charge of the new Chief Minister but also every bit of the PDP agenda to the extent that the present dispensation appears to be simply an extension of the Mufti-led regime of 2002-05.
Because of this inheritance, Omar has outsmarted PDP in Shopian. Mufti had spent only Rs 9 Lakh of the poor taxpayers’ money on Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s release from Ranchi Jail, his helicopter flight and the treatment at a hospital in Mumbai. Omar has gone a step further by spending Rs 13 Lakh on hiring the services of the country’s leading lawyers only to ensure that none of the Police officials arrested in Shopian gets bail from any court of law. Thus both have got to be tightlipped on the rape in Pulwama that involves a doctor already rewarded by the government for his “honesty and integrity”. Those who must be waiting for cancellation of Dr Sofi’s registration by the competent authority at Directorate of Health Services Kashmir may be living in a fool’s paradise. Departmental inquiry is bound to end up as an eyewash as the current session of Legislature in Jammu has not sent any note of alarm to Srinagar.
The unmoved motion against the CMO has already failed in 1:88 for MLA Langet Engineer Rashid has been the one-odd peoples’ representative disturbed by the rape in Pulwama. Congress may not be essentially permissive of the guilt committed by India-bashers but it has no cause of action as the incident has taken place in Kashmir, not in Jammu or Ladakh. BJP’s what-to-us is equally comprehensible as the victim has the disqualification of being a Muslim and the additional disqualification of being a Kashmiri.
This perhaps explains why those indicted by Jan Commission and our own separatist-friendly SIT are rounded up in seconds and those held guilty by CBI are continuously working as government advocates and government doctors.
END
Monday, March 22, 2010
Suspended CMO’s clinic sealed by Pulwama Auqaf, Police
Place of doctor’s rape on woman identified as religious property
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Mar 22: Auqaf Committee of Pulwama township in South Kashmir today sealed the building which had been allegedly used by a doctor to commit rape on a woman. However, Police swiftly swung into action and put its own seal on the room that used to be the suspended Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Ghulam Sofi’s clinic until recently.
Informed sources in south Kashmir told Early Times that after two days of investigation, Pulwama Police succeeded in identifying the place where the suspended CMO Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi had allegedly committed rape on a woman that had been recorded by unidentified persons on a mobile phone and later circulated in the Valley. Sources said that Police conducted inspection of at least three particular spots, including CMO’s office and District Hospital of Pulwama, but ultimately Dr Sofi’s clinic, situated on the first floor of a building owned by the local Auqaf, at Rajpora Chowk in the township matched with the video clip that has been seized by Police.
Even before Police would take further action, members of the local Auqaf Committee, followed by a large number of residents, sealed the building and put their locks on the clinic.
SSP Pulwama, Syed Kifayat Haider, said that Police immediately swung into action and made it clear to the people that taking the clinic into custody and making the investigation were the job of Police in which there was no room for such civilian action. He said that members of the local Auqaf and the residents cooperated with Police which later sealed the clinic. He said that Police had registered the criminal case (rape) under section 376 (D) and the investigation was underway. He said that efforts were underway to identify and interrogate the woman exploited as well as the people who made video of the criminal act. He said that Police were questioning the doctor for few hours of the day but clarified that he had not been formally arrested as sufficient material evidence to take such action was not available as of now.
Residents said that there was a lot of anger against the doctor as well as some politicians, including a Member of Parliament, who were allegedly trying to shield the criminals. “Be it PDP, National Conference or Hurriyat, all of them are selective in such matters. They have been all exposed by their criminal silence in this matter. Only an Independent MLA has shown some concern in the Assembly”, complained one of the members of Pulwama Auqaf. He said it was strange that entire Kashmir valley had erupted on a rape in Shopian that was based on speculations but everybody was tightlipped on the one in which there was substantial material proof.
Dr Sofi, who is now facing charges of committing rape on a woman in addition to a departmental inquiry, was among the six doctors who had publicly confirmed “rape and murder” of a 17-year-old unmarried woman, namely Asiya Jan, and her 25-year-old married sister-in-law, Neelofar Jan, who had been found dead in mysterious circumstances in Rambiara nullah in Shopian on May 29th, 2009. However, an investigation, carried out by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alongwith teams of doctors and forensic experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) later established that both the young women had died due to drowning in the nullah and no rape or murder had taken place.
CBI’s observation was primarily based on the fact that the unmarried woman’s hymen was found intact when the dead bodies were exhumed nearly six months after the burial. However, mainstream as well as separatist political parties had dismissed the CBI investigation as a “cover up” to shield the Police officials.
During the course of investigation, CBI claimed to have found that six doctors, including then Deputy CMO of Pulwama Dr Sofi, had fudged and fabricated evidences so as to implicate innocent Police officials in a criminal matter in which the guilty are liable to capital punishment. In a startling revelation, gynecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen had narrated to CBI how she had actually collected vaginal swab slides from a number of married woman examined at District Hospital of Pulwama and sent the same to CFSL as the vaginal swab of the two women found dead. She had claimed to the interrogators that Dr Sofi had influenced her to collect and send the fudged swab to the CFSL. Public statements of Dr Nighat Shaheen and Dr Sofi had led to violent anti-India and anti-Government demonstrations in which at least 8 persons got killed and over a thousand injured.
CBI has filed the chargesheet against six doctors and five Shopian-based lawyers in a court of law which has granted bail to all the accused who include now suspended CMO of Pulwama, Dr Sofi, and the state government’s Public Prosecutor in District and Sessions Court of Shopian, Sheikh Mubarak.
END
Place of doctor’s rape on woman identified as religious property
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Mar 22: Auqaf Committee of Pulwama township in South Kashmir today sealed the building which had been allegedly used by a doctor to commit rape on a woman. However, Police swiftly swung into action and put its own seal on the room that used to be the suspended Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Ghulam Sofi’s clinic until recently.
Informed sources in south Kashmir told Early Times that after two days of investigation, Pulwama Police succeeded in identifying the place where the suspended CMO Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi had allegedly committed rape on a woman that had been recorded by unidentified persons on a mobile phone and later circulated in the Valley. Sources said that Police conducted inspection of at least three particular spots, including CMO’s office and District Hospital of Pulwama, but ultimately Dr Sofi’s clinic, situated on the first floor of a building owned by the local Auqaf, at Rajpora Chowk in the township matched with the video clip that has been seized by Police.
Even before Police would take further action, members of the local Auqaf Committee, followed by a large number of residents, sealed the building and put their locks on the clinic.
SSP Pulwama, Syed Kifayat Haider, said that Police immediately swung into action and made it clear to the people that taking the clinic into custody and making the investigation were the job of Police in which there was no room for such civilian action. He said that members of the local Auqaf and the residents cooperated with Police which later sealed the clinic. He said that Police had registered the criminal case (rape) under section 376 (D) and the investigation was underway. He said that efforts were underway to identify and interrogate the woman exploited as well as the people who made video of the criminal act. He said that Police were questioning the doctor for few hours of the day but clarified that he had not been formally arrested as sufficient material evidence to take such action was not available as of now.
Residents said that there was a lot of anger against the doctor as well as some politicians, including a Member of Parliament, who were allegedly trying to shield the criminals. “Be it PDP, National Conference or Hurriyat, all of them are selective in such matters. They have been all exposed by their criminal silence in this matter. Only an Independent MLA has shown some concern in the Assembly”, complained one of the members of Pulwama Auqaf. He said it was strange that entire Kashmir valley had erupted on a rape in Shopian that was based on speculations but everybody was tightlipped on the one in which there was substantial material proof.
Dr Sofi, who is now facing charges of committing rape on a woman in addition to a departmental inquiry, was among the six doctors who had publicly confirmed “rape and murder” of a 17-year-old unmarried woman, namely Asiya Jan, and her 25-year-old married sister-in-law, Neelofar Jan, who had been found dead in mysterious circumstances in Rambiara nullah in Shopian on May 29th, 2009. However, an investigation, carried out by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alongwith teams of doctors and forensic experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) later established that both the young women had died due to drowning in the nullah and no rape or murder had taken place.
CBI’s observation was primarily based on the fact that the unmarried woman’s hymen was found intact when the dead bodies were exhumed nearly six months after the burial. However, mainstream as well as separatist political parties had dismissed the CBI investigation as a “cover up” to shield the Police officials.
During the course of investigation, CBI claimed to have found that six doctors, including then Deputy CMO of Pulwama Dr Sofi, had fudged and fabricated evidences so as to implicate innocent Police officials in a criminal matter in which the guilty are liable to capital punishment. In a startling revelation, gynecologist Dr Nighat Shaheen had narrated to CBI how she had actually collected vaginal swab slides from a number of married woman examined at District Hospital of Pulwama and sent the same to CFSL as the vaginal swab of the two women found dead. She had claimed to the interrogators that Dr Sofi had influenced her to collect and send the fudged swab to the CFSL. Public statements of Dr Nighat Shaheen and Dr Sofi had led to violent anti-India and anti-Government demonstrations in which at least 8 persons got killed and over a thousand injured.
CBI has filed the chargesheet against six doctors and five Shopian-based lawyers in a court of law which has granted bail to all the accused who include now suspended CMO of Pulwama, Dr Sofi, and the state government’s Public Prosecutor in District and Sessions Court of Shopian, Sheikh Mubarak.
END
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