Srinagar, June 11, 2019 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the mother of the 8-year-old girl who was murdered after being gang-raped in Kathua last year said that justice would have been served if the culprits had been sentenced to death.
The girl’s mother while talking to media persons said, “No, we are not satisfied with the punishment.” The family along with livestock is camping in Kokernag area of Islamabad district on their annual trek to the higher meadows of the district.
The verdict in the case, which had made headlines in January last year, came to a conclusion on Monday after a special court in Pathankot pronounced 6 out of the seven accused guilty. Later in the day, the quantum of punishment was announced.
Three of the accused were awarded a life sentence for rape and murder while three others were convicted of destroying evidence and awarded a jail term of five years.
When the verdict was announced, the shoulders of the victim’s family in Kokernag dropped. They were hoping for capital punishment for the culprits. “Not that out little child would have come back to us if the quantum of punishment was harsher. But it would have somehow meant that the girls of many parents would have been safer,” the mother added.
She lamented the sheer pain and agony her family had to go through in the past more than a year. “We are afraid of sending our girls out, even to school. I don’t want anyone to go through what we have endured,” she said.
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