Daily Diary (DD) - Day 341 of 2021

2110hrs: 

I didn't finish the translation of the 'missing historic links of Sharda', until 0900hrs this morning. I had been working on it intermittently for the past week and reached the last pages at some point after midnight and just kept going.....

......

I have much to add on Kanwal Matloob - an 11 year old orphaned girl - alleged to have been brutally raped and murdered by a citizen from the neighbouring territory, about exactly a month ago. She was categorised as missing by her family on the evening of the 8th of November (2021), when she had failed to return home from the local bazaar near Pachwana, Kataar (in rural Dadyaal), where she had gone at about 1600hrs (4pm) that day. Subsequently, local 'law enforcement agencies' took about 25 days to 'solve' the crime and bring in the suspect for due legal process. 

Background:

It is reported that this young child was pounced on at a relatively remote stream between her home and her local bazaar by the alleged perpetrator (who hails from Faislabad in Pakistan and who had spent the last 2 years working at a tent service run by his own brother in this area). It is also reported that he then dragged her to an even more remote area (the crime scene can be seen in the following video):

 

After raping her, he hacked off her head from her body using stones and then concealed her in the foliage seen above. It is also reported that he continued to visit this 'crime' scene for the next 4 days and also began using acid to prevent the young corpse's odour from spreading. 

It is then reported that he left the area and was traced through CCTV footage of the local bazaar and tallying of telecommunications data of the area. He was picked up from Lahore in Pakistan, while 2 of his brothers were in police custody, under investigation. The police have stated publicly that under police interrogation the alleged perpetrator of this crime disclosed the location where he had committed this heinous crime and dumped her body.

Whatever the process, it wasn't until the 3rd of December that what had actually happened to Kanwal Matloob started to surface in the public domain.

....

We'll begin today's proceedings with this live video captured for JKTV. It runs for about 30 minutes and takes in the movement of the crowd from HBL Chowk in Aara Jattan to its destination at Maqbool Bhat Shaheed Square. It emerged that this crowd possibly provided an example of a level of unprecedented mass mobilisation of the public in Dadyaal:

 

The following video captured from elsewhere provides a clearer snapshot of the procession converging on Maqbool Bhat Shaheed Square, courtesy Imran Shehzad Chugtai:

Snapshot footage from #Dadyaal of the revival of public rights activism - possibly unprecedented - as it converged on Maqbool Bhat Shaheed Square on the 7th of December 2021, seeking #JusticeforKanwalMatloob #RuleofLaw #AJK
Courtesy: Imran Shehzad Chugtai pic.twitter.com/Fus4gfc1Y2

— Tanveer Ahmed (@sahaafi) December 11, 2021

In the next video, it can also be gauged that this wasn't just an unprecedented gathering of men but women too, who were given the space within Maqbool Bhat Shaheed Square itself. The size and prolonged presence of the crowd also forced the local administration to engage in a question and answer session here:

Then a video interview - taken towards the end of today's protest - by Tayyab Kashmiri, for his very popular Youtube channel (other videos of his have been referenced earlier in today's post too) is presented here:

 

Having closely monitored the speeches of all notable figures of Dadyaal - present at today's unprecedented protest - I felt it important to introduce a public policy approach to these oft repeated crimes and the lack of justice emanating from the administrative and judicial procedure adopted. 

Here I interview Iftikhar Siddiqui, who was most instrumental in generating such a crowd under the platform of Sada e Haq (Voice of Truth), which he founded:

On Youtube:

On Facebook (JKTV):

......

On this very day, something important of an academic nature was happening in London. At least, it was hosted in London and by a platform on Facebook created by the London School of Economics, namely LSE Ideas:

I did make use of the right to ask questions directly to the panel, during the discussion, via text.