Jawan ‘assaults’ boy, J-K village boils

Struggling to calm an angry north Kashmir where a girl was tortured in police custody, the Mufti Sayeed government is grappling with a new p...

Struggling to calm an angry north Kashmir where a girl was tortured in police custody, the Mufti Sayeed government is grappling with a new problem: in south Kashmir, there’s public outrage over the sexual assault of a 16-year-old boy, allegedly by a Rashtriya Rifles jawan.

The boy, Arif Hussain Khan of Check Wangund village, has told police that he was on his way to school in Dooru when he was taken off a bus at the Nadoora camp of 49 RR.

Police quoted Arif as saying that he was taken by a jawan to an abandoned school building near the camp and sodomised. Dooru police SHO told Express that an FIR had been lodged and police are investigating the case.

Story continues below this ad

‘‘We are waiting for the medical report. The doctor has examined him (Arif), the final opinion is awaited.’’ The boy, meanwhile, is in a state of shock and is refusing to meet anyone.

Army’s 15 Corps spokesman in Srinagar has called the charge ‘‘baseless’’. He said: ‘‘Nothing of that sort happened. The doctor who examined him has ruled out any sexual abuse.’’

But a village elder from Dooru, among those protesting, claimed the doctor was under pressure to hush up the matter. ‘‘The doctor belongs to our area. He is scared of the Army. We have been appealing to the government to send a team of doctors from outside this area or shift the boy to Srinagar for a medical examination,’’ he said.

Ghulam Ahmad Mir, local Congress legislator and Public Works minister, said he had ‘‘no words to condemn this crime.’’ ‘‘I am shocked. I have asked the police to investigate it without any fear or favour. We do not interfere in counter-insurgency operations but such a heinous crime is unacceptable.’’

Story continues below this ad

Mir said he too was waiting for the doctor’s report. ‘‘We will either take this boy to a different place for medical examination or constitute a team of doctors from Srinagar to give an opinion,’’ he said, adding that the government was in touch with the Army on the matter.

The incident has led to protests in south Kashmir. DIG Ravinder Kotwal has also ordered an investigation.

This incident has come just four days after a DSP took a Class X girl of Zachaldara, 10 km from Handwara in north Kashmir, from her school and allegedly tortured her at a local police post. ‘‘There were two woman constables in the room and the DSP asked me if I knew anything about the killers of Mushtaq (a CRPF constable killed a fortnight ago). I told him I didn’t know anything. That’s when it started,’’ recalled the girl.

The incident sparked off massive protests. DIG Baramullah was asked to investigate and the DSP and an SI at the police post were transferred.