Jammu Bar Association president B.S. Slathia, who was behind the bandh demanding a CBI probe into the 8-year old rape-murder case, is an old Congress hand.
New Delhi: The brutal gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua has not just brought to the fore the divide between Hindus and Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, but its aftermath has also exposed the faultlines within the leadership of the opposition Congress party in the state.
Protests demanding justice for the 8-year old have been overshadowed by demonstrations in support of the accused by a previously-unknown group called the Hindu Ekta Manch, which is seeking a CBI probe.
The Congress, critics say, has not spoken in one voice on the issue, but the role of its state leaders needs little proof: One of the leading lights of the protest in favour of a CBI probe is senior Congress leader B.S. Slathia, the president of the Jammu Bar Association. Slathia spearheaded Wednesday’s Jammu bandh.
While state Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir has officially criticised the protestors as well as Kathua lawyers who impeded the filing of the chargesheet against the accused, several Jammu-based Congress leaders told ThePrint that unless they supported the ‘struggle’, the party faced the prospect of leaving the field open for the BJP.
Slathia is very close to Congress veteran and Rajya Sabha leader of the opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, who hails from Doda in the Jammu region. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election in the Udhampur-Doda constituency, Slathia, a senior lawyer in the J&K High Court, was Azad’s chief election agent. Azad lost by about 60,000 votes to BJP’s Jitendra Singh, now minister of state in the PMO.
“Slathia is close to Azad sahib. That is no secret. But, what he is doing now (leading the protests) is part of his job as president of the Jammu Bar Association, which has always been at the forefront of struggle for the rights of the Jammu region,” said a senior Congress leader who didn’t wish to be named.
The same leader also pointed to the fact that Slathia was at the forefront of the 2008 agitation on the Amarnath Yatra land issue. He also headed the bar association back then.
It is unimaginable that the rapists nay beasts and monsters commited this act in a temple.Four of the rapists are policemen. What justice can we expect where the persons supposed to uphold the law and protect the common man is commiting such heniuos and horrific act.Also, Lawyers are supporting the rapists by obstructing justice.What have we come to? LAwyers supporting rapists?Do they have no daughters? OR is it because they have been communally brainwashed that they cannot see the inhuman and despicable crime.Even 2 elected representatives supported the Rapists.these MLA’s should be punished for supporting this ghastly act.
So we see, police, lawyers, politicians all come together to support Rapists because they belong to the majority community.
Law has gone to the Dogs.And all this happens in a Temple.A temple.
it happens regularly in mosque n masjids where u auction th girls virginity to the highest bidder and call it halal ! kashmir mosque openly talk of fighting the indians n call for protection of the terrorists … this is communal rape and murder and this asifa case will get to the natural justice and the masjid residing mullhas will be revealed and their real perpatrators will be hanged ….its just a matter of time
Your news is blatantly untruthful.NDTV life coverage clearly showed that.This bastard had called the band on some other issue and you and him have totally reversed facts.Shame!!
hey moron dont be apologists to the NDTV n congressi pigs …he was hand in glove to protest and nothing wrong as jammuites are united to to to let hindus be accused …. he was congrss agent n he was protestor on the same issue ….congress is most coward corrupt communal party and it will never come to power in india leave .. alone kashmir
Whoever did crime treated like criminal looks at act and does stringent step. hang up till death for rapist put brave step like j&k police.
The Bar Council of India should take disciplinary action against the lawyers who obstructed filing of the charge sheet. Calling for a bandh or demanding a CBI probe, merely to delay the inevitable, is not an act that brings honour to an advocate’s gown.
“The same leader also pointed to the fact that Slathia was at the forefront of the 2008 agitation on the Amarnath Yatra land issue. He also headed the bar association back then.”
It would have been really helpful if the author took some pain at explaining the Amarnath Yatra Land Issue as well, or atleast hyperlink the phrase with a detailed article. Other websites do it. The Print too could!
Isn’t he the lawyer who has threatened Asifa’s lawyer?