Hyderabad: Responding to the release of 11 people convicted for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of other Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, Telangana IT minister K. T. Rama Rao (KTR) took to his Twitter account to criticise Prime Minister (PM), Narendra Modi, on Wednesday.
KTR requested Modi to take action and cancel the Gujarat government’s remission order of the 11 convicts. He said, “Dear PM @narendramodi Ji, If you had really meant what you spoke about Respecting women, urge you to intervene & rescind the Gujarat Govt remission order releasing 11 Rapists. Sir, it is nauseating to put it mildly & against MHA order. Need you to show sagacity to the Nation.”
Recently, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi also targeted Prime Minister Modi over the release of the 11 rapists. As India celebrated 75 years of its Independence, Modi had asked Indians to take a pledge not to do anything that lowers the dignity of women, Owaisi said.
However, Owaisi tweeted on the release of the Bikis Bano case convicts and said, “He said something about supporting ‘Nari Shakti’. Gujarat BJP govt released criminals convicted of gang rape on the same day. The message is clear,” Owaisi tweeted on the release of the Bikis Bano case convicts.
Who is Bilkis Bano?
Twenty years ago, on February 28, 2002, Sabarmati Express carrying karsevaks was set on fire in Godhra station. What followed the attack on the train were riots that claimed the lives of thousands of innocent victims, mostly Muslim families.
Bilkis Bano, who was a little less than 21 years of age and five months pregnant at that time, tried to flee the state with her family, including her three-year-old daughter – Sahela.
March 3, 2002, the family reached Pannivel village and took refuge in a field. However, they were soon cornered by 20-30 Hindu men, armed with sticks, sickles, and swords.
As they shouted, ‘Aa rahya Musalmano, emane maaro, kaato,’ (these are the Muslims, kill them, cut them’) Bilkis recognized many faces.
What followed was a blood bath and a cry for mercy as one by one Bilkis’s family members were killed. Four women including Bilkis and her mother were brutally gang raped and assaulted. One of the accused – Shailesh Bhatt – snatched Bilkis’s daughter from her arms and smashed the toddler’s head onto the ground, killing her instantly.
Fifteen of her family members were killed that day. Her cousin who had given birth to a baby girl the previous day was brutally ripped off, raped, and killed along with her infant. Bilkis was left naked, bleeding, and unconscious. Since Bilkis was the lone survivor and eyewitness of the murders, she went through the ordeal of identifying the bodies, including her toddler. She also underwent a medical examination four days after her rape.
After fighting the case for six long years, on January 18, 2008, the special court in Mumbai sentenced the 11 accused to life imprisonment (one had died) and arrested a policeman for three years for trying to destroy evidence.
