The Legitimate Desk
‘She Cried When I Showed Her Sharp Knife To Slaughter Her’
A dirt and mud track leads towards the sleepy hamlet Laddi in the neighbourhood of Boniyar village. Surrounded with Kail, Deador and Fir trees, the village is located close to the Line of Control.
The inhabitants of this pictursque are in a state of shock and don’t want to speak much as they are incredulous after body of nine year old daughter of Mushtaq Ahmad Gania was found in the nearby forests around one kilometres away from her home dense forests.
What has left horrified everyone not only in this village but in the entire Valley are the sequence of events and people still disbelieve how a nine year old girl was first raped by four people including her own step brother on the insistence of her stepmother who was angry with her husband for marrying second time and then killed this nine year old girl in the most brutal.
Though village is yet to come to terms, but in one voice they want strict punishment for all the culprits and some are demanding hanging till death.
On August 22, when everybody was celebrating Eid in the village, children were having fun as they wore new shinny dresses and got colourful items. The nine year old girl who was loved by her parents and neighbours also had a fun at her home and on the day she wore beautiful clothes played all the day with her mates.
“I don’t believe my daughter was killed in such a gruesome way,’’ said Gania his father, while her mother who is from Jharkhand is still in a state of shock. She is Gania’s second wife and her first wife Fahmeeda couldn’t tolerate her presence in the house despite over a decade of marriage. She had a grudge not only against the first wife but also disliked her children as she felt husband was ignoring her.
On second day of Eid ul Adha, the girl went missing and nobody knew where she had gone. Her family members and neighbours started looking for her but couldn’t trace her. In fact rumours started making round in the village that girl was abducted by a gang of beggars from outside the state.
As family members including Fahmeeda was busy in searching the young girl, her colourful picture in which she wore beautiful pink dress with flowers attached to her silky hair stated making rounds on the social media, especially on facebook and Whats App.
Ever body was sharing the picture of the cute girl with a hope that the she would be traced. All efforts however failed to yield any positive results for days. Much to the shock, exactly 12 days after the missing of the girl, police recovered a semi decomposed body just a kilometre away from her house in the forests.
It took villagers no time to recognize the body belonged to the village girl whom they had been searching from past two weeks.
Villagers were shocked on seeing the gory pictures of the girl, everybody in the Valley where death and destruction is a norm now was grieving over the gruesome killing of this girl. The picture revealed everything what could have happened with the young budding bloom.
After recovery of the body for police it was a big challenge to identify the killers and the motive.
‘’This should have never happened in this place. I don’t know how to describe this as the killing was not only gruesome but it unheard about this place,’’ says Raja Nazar Boniyari who is one of the prominent person of the area.
The Murder Plot
Senior Superintendent of Police Mir Imtiyaz Hussain revealed on August 24, Mushtaq Ahmad Ganai of Laddi lodged a complaint that his nine-year-old girl was abducted.
“During the investigation, the statement of the father of the girl was recorded and it was found that he has two wives, one from local Trikanjan village namely Fahmeeda and another Khushboo who is a non-local from Jharkhand.
The missing girl was a daughter of non-local mother. On last Sunday, the body of the missing girl was found in decomposed form in nearby forests, some 1 Km away from her home.”
Hussain said examining the scene of crime and circumstances thereof, it appeared to be the case of murder and accordingly investigation was set into motion in this direction.
“During questioning of the step-mother of the deceased and other suspects, a bone chilling and horrible account of murder and rape of nine-year-old child came to the fore.
It was found that the step-mother Fahmeeda had been nourishing a long standing grudge against the non-local wife of her husband and her children, as she has the perception that her husband was more inclined and affectionate towards her second wife and her children.
She also revealed that her husband would spent time with her second wife and his deceased daughter was the dearest to him among all children.”
SSP said on the day girl went missing she took her step-daughter to the nearby jungle and was armed with a sharp-edged knife.
“While she was on her way to forests with her step-daughter, she signalled her son Sahil (step brother of girl),14, to be ready for commission of the crime. Sahil later on joined her mother in the forest area along with two of his friends Kaiser Ahmad, 19, and Aadil Ahmad, 14, of Trikanjan Boniyar. One more accused Naseer Ahmad Khan, 28, also joined in the commission of crime.”
He said on reaching the spot, the girl was gang raped by the accused in presence and at the instance of her step mother.
“It was Kaiser who first raped her and then others including Sahil, her step brother took turns to rape the girl.
Thereafter Fahmeeda strangulated the girl and Sahil hit her head with axe, killing her on the spot. After that, one of the accused Adil went back his home and brought acid.
While Fahmeeda strangulated her, Sahil hit her head with axe and Kaiser gouged out her eyes with a sharp knife and then acid was sprinkled on her body parts. Physical condition and preliminary forensic analysis of the body substantiated all these facts.”
SSP said Kaiser and Naseer dumped the body in the bushes and covered it with twigs and branches of pine trees. “All the material and weapons of offence including axe and knife have been recovered at the instance of the accused.”
Two days after the burial, the police exhumed the body of the girl and took samples for the forensic investigation. “
” Team of doctors including experts in forensic medicine from GMC Srinagar were present at the time of estimation. Certain medico-legal aspects needed more clarifications which local doctors couldn’t do,” ASP said.
Gruesome killing
Fahmeeda is in Police custody she has no remorse but told her investigators that only time girl started crying when she took a knife and began to slit her throat.
“The girl cried but I had decided to kill her as I wanted to take revenge from her mother,” lady told the officer who was investigating the case. The officer said the girl could have never imagined this could happen with her by her family members.
The gruesome killing not only left villagers stunned but protests broke in the area who wanted police to arrest the culprits. And when police managed to solve the case, the officers were garlanded by local villagers. This gruesome killing of a young budding blood left officers moved and SSP Baramulla could not control his emotion while revealing details of the killing.
Second killing in north Kashmir
Two months ago in similar circumstances body of a ten year old boy Umar was recovered from forests of Gulgam Kupwara. The boy was an alone brother among five sisters and was killed in the same way the girl was killed.
Despite protests the police couldn’t solve the case. Now due to public pressure the case has been handed over to Crime branch for further investigation. In the villages of Kupwara many theories are making round, however police had not been able to solve the case.
Social fabric
The killing of two children have once again exposed us about the lacunas our society is passing. Though we tend to portray ourselves as one of the ‘best nation’ but the back to back gruesome killings have raised question mark on us as a society. Time has come that we should introspect within over selves.
In past three decades our society has attained several successes at individual levels unfortunately we are far behind from our predecessors who used to give importance to character building and moral science within the society.
Time is running fast for us to ponder, otherwise as a society we will be lost forever and will get entrenched into moral degeneration. Time to wake up from deep slumber.
