The Shiv Sena on Sunday said that just because she is a Muslim, the crime against Bilkis Bano cannot be forgiven. The party was questioning the Gujarat government’s decision to release all 11 Hindutva men convicted of rape and murder in the Bilkis Bano case.
“We cry out loud when similar atrocities take place in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh. Then where has our sensitivity gone in the case of Bilkis Bano?” the party wrote its mouthpiece Saamana.
“If Bilkis’s rapists are released for the sake of Hindu votes in upcoming Gujarat elections, then this tendency would destroy us,” Sena said.
“Is felicitating rapists Hindu culture?” the Sena sought to know.
Just because Bilkis Bano is a Muslim, the crime against her cannot be forgiven, stated Saamana article “Rokhthok”.
“Rokhthok” was a weekly column of Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut. Raut is presently in jail after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Sunday’s column carried the byline, Kadaknath Mumbaikar.
Bilkis Bano was five months’ pregnant when she was gang-raped by the Hindu mob while fleeing the anti-Muslim genocide that broke out in 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven killed by the Hindu mob. The 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy.
