Farooq calls for Assembly session

Srinagar: Opposition National Conference (NC) president and three-time chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Sunday asked for convening a special session of the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to bring about a new law mandating death penalty for raping a minor.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had earlier during the week said that a new law would be introduced awarding death sentence to those guilty of raping minors in the state. In a tweet on April 12, she said, “We will never ever let another child suffer in this way. We will bring a new law that will make the death penalty mandatory for those who rape minors, so that little girl’s case becomes the last.”

An 8-year-old girl had gone missing while grazing horses in Rasana village of Hiranagar tehsil of J&K’s Kathua district on January 17. A week later, her body was found in woods near her village. The DNA and police investigations revealed that she was held inside a local temple where she was drugged, raped and killed.

Mr Abdullah, while speaking to NC workers and officer-bearers, expressed anguish, grief and pain at the “heart-rending and gruesome tragedy” in Kathua. He sought “strictest and most exemplary” punishment for the culprits. He said, “We demand a special legislative session so that it could, as announced earlier, propose a bill mandating the death penalty for such heinous crimes against children.”