Hindus burn alive Muslim girl for refusing to marry Hindu boy

Hindu fanatics burnt alive a 20-year-old girl identified as Gulnaz Khatoon by sprinkling kerosene oil on her body in Rasoolpur village under Desari Police Station of Vaishali district in Indian state of Bihar.

While she was set ablaze on October 30 on the day of Eid Miladun Nabi, she expired in Patna Medical College Hospital on November 15 during treatment, reported Indian media on Wednesday.

She had sustained 75 percent burn injuries. She was engaged and was to be married after four months.

The “Godi media” is completely silent and have avoided reporting/airing the incident. Maybe it is not “Love Jihad” by their own standards because the girl in question happens to be a Muslim.

It has been more than two weeks since the incident took place, the accused persons have not been arrested though the victim named them in a video statement before she breathed her last. Vaishali District Superintendent of Police Dr Gaurav Mangla said that the accused persons are on the run and three police teams had been formed to nab them. He said that if the accused don’t surrender within the next three days, the police will start proceedings for seizure of their properties.

Meanwhile, the family members of the victim have refused to bury the body and they are sitting in the middle of the road with victim’s body on a bier, demanding that the accused be arrested. #JusticeforGulnaz was also trending on twitter throughout the day Wednesday, with more than 70,000 persons having tweeted, condemning the ghastly murder.

The reason for the accused persons to kill her, according to her family members, was that she refused to marry one of the accused - Satish Rai.

While the victim in her dying declaration, that was video recorded, said it was Satish Rai who sprinkled kerosene oil on her and then set her ablaze, the family members said that two other youths Chandan Rai and Vijay Rai also involved in the crime.

According to victim’s mother Maimoona Khatoon, the accused on October 29 had threatened to kill her and did so the very next day. Gulnaz’s younger sister Gulshan Parveen said that “the accused had been stalking and sexually harassing her sister for the last three-four months and bringing pressure on her to marry Satish Rai. They killed her because she refused”.

In a video statement to the police, Gulnaz said, “I was going to throw garbage around 6pm when Satish Rai, son of Vinay Rai poured kerosene oil on me and set ablaze me with a match stick”. Her brother, who works in Patna, also said the same thing.

Victim’s father Mukhtar had expired a few years ago. Gulnaz used to help her mother in tailoring work to earn a living for the family.

According to reports, victim’s family had complained to the parents of accused Satish Rai about the latter stalking the girl. But the family of Satish did nothing in the matter. In fact, another villager is alleged to have advised the girl to accept Satish’s offer of marriage.

When Satish did not stop harassing her, she is reported to have told him, “You(Satish) are a Hindu and I (Gulnaz ) a Muslim. I can neither have an affair with you, nor can I marry you”. She is reported to have requested Satish not to harass her. But this became the reason for Satish to burn the girl alive.

But on October 30 evening when she was going to dispose of the garbage of her house, she is reported to have been dragged by the three persons, Satish Rai, Vijay Rai and Chandan Rai. But it was Satish who poured kerosene oil on the girl and then set her ablaze. She sustained 75 percent burn injuries.

Villagers and her family members rushed to her rescue on hearing the screams of the girl. She was immediately rushed to Samprabhu Hospital in nearby Hajipur where a video statement was taken by the Hajipur police and the case transferred to Desari Police Station in whose jurisdiction the incident had happened. Though Desari Police Station’s SHO Firoz Hussain lodged the FIR on November 2, he did nothing to arrest the accused persons.

She was, however, shifted to PMCH when her condition deteriorated. She expired on November 15 during treatment.

A large number of people on microblogging site Twitter have demanded stern punishment for the accused persons so that such incidents are not repeated.