The apex court directed members of the bar not to obstruct judicial proceedings in the Kathua gang rape and murder case in Jammu and Kashmir
Delhi high court restrained the media from revealing the identity of the victim by any means.
The brutal rape and murder of an eight-year-old Bakerwal girl has polarised the normally peaceful town of Jammu, with the local Bar association calling for a bandh against what it termed the "targeting of minority Dogras" while the state police had lodged a case against lawyers who allegedly tried to prevent it from filing a chargesheet against the accused.
'There are communal overtones in the chargesheet.' 'Hindus and Muslims live peacefully in Jammu and by highlighting such facts in the chargesheet they are committing a conspiracy against Jammu.' The reason: A Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the Kathua rape-cum-murder case (see box below) and the deportation of Rohingya immigrants. Speaking to Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf, B S Salathia, Jammu Bar Association explains their call for a bandh and the communal divide it has brought about in Jammu.
He said the BAJ had told the media repeatedly that Wednesday's bandh was not on the Kathua rape-and-murder issue as the case is in court now.
According to the chargesheets filed by the crime branch, the abduction, rape and killing of the Bakerwal girl was part of a carefully planned strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area.
'The people of the state can be won over by love, and not by swords.'
'She was just a little girl. She didn't understand religion. Who is Hindu, who is Muslim.' 'She was just 8! Why punish her?' The family of the eight-year-old girl who was gang-raped and murdered in Jammu's Kathua district say everything has changed since that horrific crime.
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