Cartoonists and artists from Kashmir were not unaffected by the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl. According to reports, the motive behind the crime was to drive away the nomadic Bakerwal community from Kathua that is about 50 km from Jammu. The illustrations and cartoons highlighted the gruesome crime, and also the muddy politics surrounding the investigation into the incident.
Suhail Naqshbandi, editorial cartoonist for the daily Greater Kashmir, says it took him some time to wrap his head around the gruesome incident. He says he couldn’t process how some people, including lawyers, could rally in support of the rape and murder accused in Jammu. “It has hit the lowest of the lows at so many levels,” says Naqshbandi. “Right from the unspeakable violence on the poor child to the mentality of the people who are against getting her justice, to lawyers trying to block filling of the Challan against the accused in the Kathua court and then threatening the lawyer who is pleading her case, it couldn’t get worse.”
