Many political leaders and women\u2019s rights activists in India have come together to demand justice for a Muslim woman, who was allegedly burned to death by a Hindu man and his friends in Vaishali district in the eastern province of Bihar.
Gulnaz Khatoon, 20, was burned after the accused poured kerosene over her in Rasoolpur village on October 30. She succumbed to her burns on Sunday.
The woman\u2019s family alleges the police delayed in taking action against the accused, who were identified as Satish Kumar Rai, Chandan, and Vinod Rai.
Khatoon was brought to the local hospital with 75 percent burn injuries. She was later moved to Patna Medical College Hospital, the largest hospital in the province, where she died.
She was engaged to another man and the marriage ceremony was scheduled to be held in four months, her family said.
Satish Kumar Rai had been harassing Gulnaz to marry him, the victim\u2019s family said, adding that the woman refused to enter into an interfaith marriage with Rai. Enraged at her refusal, Rai and his friends killed her, the family said.
Media reports said Gulnaz was burned when she went out to take out the rubbish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Video statement of the victim Family staged a demonstration JusticeForGulnaz Many political leaders and women\u2019s rights activists in India have come together to demand justice for a Muslim woman, who was allegedly burned to death by a Hindu man and his friends in Vaishali district in the eastern province of Bihar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong>According to the video statement of the victim before her death, she was caught by three men, all residents of Rasoolpur village and they started molesting her.
When she resisted and threatened to tell her mother about their misconduct, the angry men poured kerosene on her.
The statement names Rai specifically, who poured the kerosene and set her on fire.
Vaishali District Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Mangla said the accused persons were on the run and three police teams have been formed to arrest them.
\u201cInvestigations in the case were in progress and the accused people would be arrested very soon,\u201d said Mangla.
The chief of the local police station has been suspended for negligence in the case.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Khatoon\u2019s younger sister Gulshan Parveen said the killers fled the scene as soon as villagers gathered after hearing her screams.
\u201cThe accused persons had been stalking and sexually harassing my sister for the last three-four months and pressurising her to marry Satish Rai. They killed her because she refused,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>The victim\u2019s father, Mukhtar, died in 2017. The family of five sisters and four brothers survived on the wages of mother Shaimuna Khatoon and brother Istkar Ahmed. They work in the state capital Patna where the mother stitches and son sells clothes.
The victim\u2019s family had complained to the parents of the accused about the harassment. But they allegedly did nothing.
\u201cAfter her marriage was fixed, Satish Rai started harassing her even more and pressurized her to marry him. However, she told him that she cannot marry him. Enraged over her refusal, he threatened to kill her,\u201d said the victim\u2019s brother Istkar.
Several videos of Khatoon have gone viral, where she is pinpointing the accused and describing the incident in detail.
There was also an appeal on Facebook seeking help to treat her.
After Khatoon\u2019s death on Sunday, her family staged a demonstration at a city square to call for punishment.
\u201cWe want Justice. It has been 17 days but there has hardly been any progress. We complained but it was not considered. We are powerless, we have no one to help us,\u201d Shaimuna Khatoon, mother of the victim, told Anadolu Agency.
Many women\u2019s rights organisations have demanded immediate arrest of the accused and compensation of two million rupees ($27,000) and a government job to the victim\u2019s family, besides conducting a fair investigation and trial in a fast track court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>JusticeForGulnaz trended on Twitter on Monday as people expressed anguish at the delay in the registering of the case against the perpetrators.
Taking to Twitter, leader of India\u2019s main opposition Congress party Rahul Gandhi attacked the government and attributed it to misrule and a false notion of good governance.
Sharing the newspaper report, Gandhi wrote: \u201cWhose crime is more dangerous. Those who carried out this inhuman act? Or those who hid it for electoral gains to lay the foundation of his false good governance on this misrule?\u201d
Asaduddin Owaisi, a prominent Muslim leader, called for action against the accused.
\u201cUnbelievable cruelty. Prayers for victim & her family. These men \u2018punished\u2019 her for resisting molestation. It\u2019s been 15 DAYS & there\u2019s still no action. Men like Satish are emboldened by the fact that there\u2019s never any action. @NitishKumar where\u2019s your \u201ctough on crime\u201d policy now?\u201d he tweeted, tagging the state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Kumar took over as chief minister this week for the fourth consecutive term after his Janata Dal United party won the regional elections in alliance with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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