Srinagar: The lawyer who is defending the accused in the case of alleged gangrape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district has asked Hindus of the region to boycott the Muslim nomadic tribes of Bakarwals and Gujjars.
He also asks them not to buy milk and other dairy products from them and not to sell their properties to Muslims.
The victim belonging to Bakarwal tribe went missing while grazing horses near her makeshift house in Rasana village of Kathua in January this year.
About a week later, her body was found in woods in the area and, as per the chargesheets filed in a local court against eight persons by the Crime Branch of the J&K police which investigated the case, she was held inside Rasana’s Devesthan temple where she was drugged and gangraped before being murdered.
According to Greater Kashmir newspaper, Ankur Sharma, the defence counsel of the accused, can be heard saying in a 7-minute video which was placed on social media platforms that Muslims believe Hindus were powerless.
“But we are not,” he adds and while praising Hindu Ekta Manch, the outfit which is rallying behind the accused and spearheading the campaign for a probe into the incident by CBI in the case, appeals Hindus to boycott the Gujjars and Bakarwals. “Hindus shall also make it sure that they will not purchase anything, especially milk and other dairy products from Gujjars and Bakarwals,” he told this newspaper.
Sharma also says in the video, “We must ensure that we are not making them financially strong. If they become financially strong they will purchase our lands.”
