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โ€œNo One Enquired About My Safety And Well-Beingโ€: Bilkis Bano On Release Of Her Rapists

Bilkis Bano

Bilkis Bano was 21 when she saw seven members of her family murdered. Among them was her daughter, who was just three years old. Seven other relatives, who she says was also killed, were declared โ€œmissingโ€. The woman, five months pregnant, was then gang-raped.

New Delhi: 2002 Gujarat riots rape case survivor Bilkis Bano, has said the release of the 11 rapists has โ€œshakenโ€ her faith in justice.

In her first reaction since the release two days ago, she hinted at a sense of deep hurt and betrayal. It has left her โ€œnumbโ€ and โ€œbereft of wordsโ€, Bilkis Bano said.

โ€œHow can justice for any woman end like this? I trusted the highest courts in our land. I trusted the system, and I was learning slowly to live with my traumaโ€ฆ My sorrow and my wavering faith is not for myself alone but for every woman who is struggling for justice in courts,โ€ said the woman, whose fight for justice went on for 18 long years,โ€ Bilkis Banoโ€™s statement said.

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The statement also hinted at shock at the Gujarat governmentโ€™s move to release the convicts without any consultation with her.

โ€œNo one enquired about my safety and well-being, before taking such a big and unjust decision,โ€ Bilkis added.

Asking the Gujarat goverment for her right to live without fear she said, โ€œGive me back my right to live without fear and in peace. Please ensure that my family and I are kept safe.โ€

Bilkis Bano was 21 when she saw seven members of her family murdered. Among them was her daughter, who was just three years old. Seven other relatives, who she says was also killed, were declared โ€œmissingโ€. The woman, five months pregnant, was then gang-raped.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai on January 21, 2008, awarded the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Banoโ€™s family during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.

โ€œThose who raped a 5-month pregnant woman and killed her 3-year-old daughter were released during โ€˜Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsavโ€™,โ€ Congress Mp Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.

โ€œWhat is the message going out to the women of the country, from those speaking of women empowerment,โ€ he asked, referring to PM Modiโ€™s Independence Day speech. PM Modi, in his Independence Day speech from Red Fort, had spoken of โ€œnaari shaktiโ€ and said we must โ€œnot do anything that lowers the dignity of womenโ€.

 

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