COMMENT: The metastasis of power —Nazish Brohi
Courtesy to "Daily Times"
Veerji was abducted, assaulted, kept in confinement, and threatened with
the demand that the Kasturi case be retracted otherwise he could be
kidnapped again, with worse consequences. But it is a lesson he has
deliberated over and chosen not to learn
Our hearts are
wrenched, our minds boggled, our eyes scarred, our pockets upturned by
this flood. But like with all other crises, whether terrorist attacks,
rape and killings of women or inflation and price hikes, there are
certain people who keep us going; at times our children, our parents,
spouses, or those who inspire through their lives as profiles in
courage. For me, one such person is Veerji Kohli.
Veerji used to
be a bonded labourer, indentured with his family to a landlord, who
design debts that can never be repaid and hold people hostage for labour
in lieu of payment. He escaped as a teenager and found the resources to
free his family. Since then, he has worked tirelessly for the cause of
bonded labourers. From Nagarparkar, one of the poorest and most deprived
districts of Pakistan in Thar Desert, he is a low caste Hindu, but from
the towering caste of those who give us hope.
For a few days, Veerji disappeared.
He
has been under death threat because of his frontal position in getting
justice for Kasturi, a 17-year old girl who was gang raped. Kasturi
Kohli was attacked on January 24 in Mokrio village in Nagarparkar, when
she went out to fetch grass for cattle. Ramzan Bachal Khoso has been
charged with abducting her and taking her to his father’s autaq (a place
where Sindhis traditionally host visitors) where she was repeatedly
raped. By this time, 40 other villagers were searching for her along
with her family, and hearing her screams, recovered her from the
premises of the landlord Raees Bachal Khan Khoso, and saw her physical
condition that included bondage.
While the police tried to hush
up the matter as they frequently do, Raees Khoso decided in a faislo
(order) that his son should marry her as being married to a Hindu girl
was adequate punishment for him. The Kohli clan refused, and involved
Veerji, who was able to overcome police resistance by filing a petition
in the high court for registering an FIR, which was finally recorded
three weeks later.
As a result, the police was outraged and in
retaliation, raided Veerji’s village and brought with them clan members
of the rapist who beat up Veerji’s family and the police arrested 13 of
them, including five children, and warned of more such consequences if
the case was not dropped. But the Kohli clan refused to back off and
insisted their statements should be recorded as witnesses. Refusing not
just them, the police even refused to register the victim’s statement,
which is procedurally necessary for presenting a challan.
For
the next four months, Kasturi lived in Mehergarh’s office — where Veerji
worked — while he and his partners started a media campaign and
involved other civil society organisations, resulting in discussions in
the provincial assembly and the Inspector General (IG) constituting a
special inquiry board.
Veerji went to Islamabad to give his
testimony before the board, which led to dismissal of the Station House
Officer (SHO) and Investigation Officer (IO), and the suspension of SP
Chachro and Moharrir of Nagarparkar. Veerji by this time was under
constant death threats. Following this, there was a failed attempt to
abduct Kasturi, and Veerji was instrumental in filing an abduction
charge against the landlord.
The Kohli clan stood firm and stated
that as long as Veerji was with them, they would not relent. Unlike
cases in the past, all 40 eyewitnesses remained steadfast in their
resolve and supported Kasturi despite the violence and humiliation they
faced and their poverty of resources. Kasturi became a symbol of low
caste hari workers’ struggle against landowning lords and her case a
culmination of generations of invisible class struggles.
When
Veerji and Kasturi identified the accused and on orders of the inquiry
board, the accused were arrested, the threats against Veerji escalated
and Ghulam Qadir Marri and Raees Bachal Khoso told him he would be
picked up and tortured.
Veerji was abducted, assaulted, kept in
confinement, and threatened with the demand that the Kasturi case be
retracted otherwise he could be kidnapped again, with worse
consequences. But it is a lesson he has deliberated over and chosen not
to learn. Under no circumstances will he backtrack, and the case
prosecution will go ahead, he tells me.
Veerji knows Kasturi’s
assailants, and he knows his own. But he says they are not the same
people and does not want to point at anyone till he has proof even the
courts cannot ignore. As of now, the DPO, Munir Ahmed Sheikh, is trying
to help.
It is unusual for women to come forward and identify
rapists in FIRs (usually stating ‘unknown’); rarer still for hari
workers to file rape charges against landowners though the incidence of
rape is frequent; hardly ever that witnesses come forward to
substantiate women’s accounts and support them in moving forward in
legal cases; and unprecedented that a whole community rallies behind a
woman to challenge the social order of power while imperilling their
life and livelihood.
Kasturi’s case has gathered an importance
more than that of a rape case and acquired mythic proportions for the
Kohli clan as a fight for justice and a rising against historic
oppression. And it is a battle Kasturi wants to fight.
Germane
to the issue is that rape in Pakistan is a crime against a person, not
against the state. If Kasturi or Veerji retract the case, the state
itself will not prosecute regardless, because as per laws, it is not
aggrieved. If it was otherwise, nothing would be gained from silencing
Veerji or the countless others who are intimidated, threatened and
harmed to prevent prosecution because the state would intervene.
Reporting crime is a trial in itself in Pakistan. The state must feel
outraged, and must become the aggrieved party in this and other rape
cases. But then as even the most rudimentary analysis shows us, the
‘musts’ do not work.
Nazish Brohi is a social activist and an author. She can be reached at nazishbrohi@hotmail.com
In : Nazish Brohi
Notes