Srinagar: The 16-year-old Kashmiri girl whose alleged molestation pushed the Valley into widespread unrest and escalating violence, leaving five persons dead and scores injured last month on Monday claimed that she had been forced by the J&K police to deny the involvement of an Army jawan in the incident.
She said that she was asked to blame the occurrence and its aftermath instead on two local youths. “The police forced me to say what they recorded on a mobile phone and then put it up on the Internet," she said at a press conference here organised by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS).
The girl had on April 13, a day after Handwara witnessed clashes over her alleged molestation, said in a video that it were actually two local youth who harassed her and that there was no Army soldier present in the public lavatory where the supposed incident had taken place. She later reiterated it in a statement recorded before a Judicial Magistrate in Handwara, 72-km northwest of here. The video released by the Army had apparently been recorded in a police station on April 12 itself.
The Army had said it did not film the video. It, however, also said that the Army has verified the authenticity of the video and identity of the girl. “The video is being released after obscuring the face to protect the identity of the girl, keeping in view the sensitivities involved,” defence spokesman Lt. Col. N. N. Joshi had said here.
But the girl who along with her father and an aunt remained in ‘protective custody’ of police for 17 days alleged that she was kept against her will in the police station and subsequently in two private premises. "They made me sign blank papers. I can't write in Urdu. They made my write in Urdu and took our signature," she said. He parents who were also present at the press conference endorsing her and said she was pressured into changing her initial statement on the incident.
The girl alleged that it was an Army jawan who had grabbed her hand when she had gone to lavatory adjacent to an Army bunker at the main two square of Handwara to answer the call of nature on April 12. “I was there when the soldier came and tried to assault me. I ran out and on seeing me in a state of shock and screaming a crowd gathered,” she said adding that she was forcibly taken to the Handwara police station by a policeman identified as Muhammad Shaffi Watali by her.
“This was against my will. I had requested him to allow me to go to my home but he refused and abused me verbally,” she alleged adding that she was produced before the thana Munshi who and also other policemen present there behaved in a hostile fashion. “Their behaviour was very hostile. They used abusive language against me and even threatened me. I was scared,” she said adding “The Munshi also took my mobile phone and did not allow me to use it to speak to my parents”.
The girl further said that a police SI Mohsin entered the room and verbally abused her. “He came into the room and I noticed his name on his chest nameplate. He spat on me and left,” she alleged. Later, three more policemen who were wearing bandanas arrived and asked her to narrate the incident. “When I did it they in very harsh tone asked me to change my statement or face the consequence. It were they who insisted that I should blame the two local youth and say that they only spread rumour about my being molested by an Army jawan,” she said.
She further said that SP Handwara, Ghulam Jeelani, also visited her to ask her to explain the incident. “In distress and under pressure, I said what I had been tutored to say and without mentioning what the Army soldier had done to me. After hearing me, Jeelani Sahib left the room and returned and told me he wanted to record my statement on his mobile phone. He promised he will not make it public. Because of the pressure and having been threatened by the policemen, I repeated my statement on video without putting any blame on the Army and without mentioning what the Army man had done to me.”
