Shafiq Ur Rahman Khan

Dated on 25 April 2010 A 16-year-old Muslim girl from West Bengal, who was allegedly sold to live as a “slave wife” with a Dalit man, has been rescued from Ponchhada village in Karauli district of Rajasthan. Women’s groups here say the girl was a victim of a big trafficking network in eastern part of the State where there is a high gender imbalance. Memi Khatoon, belonging to Nijgaon village in Malda district of West Bengal, was brought to Ponchhada from Delhi about a year  ago after allegedly being purchased for Rs.26,000. She was forced to live as a wife with 40-year-old Paramsukh Lal Bairwa and was tortured and confined to his house for doing household chores. Women’s groups produced the visibly upset and malnourished girl at a press conference here on Saturday, claiming that she escaped while being taken for medical treatment to another village and was rescued by some Muslim families whom she approached. She will be lodged for the time being at the short-stay home, Shakti...

Khap mahapanchayat, the apex body of khaps or traditional Jat caste councils in Haryana, western UP and parts of rural Delhi , decided in Kurukshetra on Tuesday to support the six people convicted of honour killing by a Karnal court last month. It even sought an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act banning marriages within a gotra or mythical patrilineal lineage. But the congregation of khaps that believe in the medieval practice of inflicting extreme cruelty on those who defy their Taliban-like edicts can’t be approved as a lawful assembly. Also, the mahapanchayat’s edict that murders committed over intra-gotra marriages would have the village panchayats’ support isn’t short of abetting the grave offence of homicide. The law doesn’t ban such marriages and the constitutional intent is visible in articles 14, 19 and 21 that prohibit discrimination and call for equality and right to life. The only parallel that can be drawn to the practice of honour killings is the banned sati system, in ...

Enraged over a youth from another caste falling in love with his sister, her minor brother killed the youth with the help of two of his friends - one of whom was also a minor, police said Saturday. The three have been arrested. "We have arrested three people in connection with the case of honour killing of Bunty, who was in love with a girl from a different caste," Deputy Commissioner of Police (central Delhi) Jaspal Singh told reporters here.  The body of Bunty, 20, a resident of Anand Parbat in central Delhi, was found in an empty water tank Tuesday in the nearby Nehru Nagar, Singh said. He was missing since March 16 but his family filed a missing person case only Monday (March 29).  Investigations revealed that Bunty was in love with a girl, and her family was questioned. Some contradictions were found in her brother's version and he was interrogated further.  The brother finally admitted he had roped in two of his friends - Arun, 22, and another one, who was als...