Caste bias leads to murder of Muslim boy
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Mendhar (Poonch), May 4
Even though Islam does not prohibit inter-caste marriages among Muslims, such marriages hardly materialise in the border township of Mendhar in Poonch.

In a recent case indicating the rigidness of Muslim society in certain areas about inter-caste marriages, Guftar Ahmed, a youth belonging to a low caste (Khokhar Rajput) in Kandi village was murdered allegedly by relatives of an upper caste girl whom she wanted to marry.

The girl, Yasmeen Akhter, belonged to upper caste Manyal community among Muslim Rajputs of the same village.

Even the girl, who had reportedly been seeing the boy for the past one and half years and was in love with him, attempted suicide by consuming poison.

But she was saved due to timely medicare and is now recovering at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H), Jammu.

Although the police is yet to ascertain the identity of the real culprits, but the needle of suspicion, according to preliminary inquiry into the murder of Guftar, points at the relatives of the girl.

Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Mendhar, Yougul Manhas says that the two were reportedly having an affair for the past one and half years and were planning to get married.

“Our inquiry reveals that the two were having an affair which was not liked by the relatives of the girl. We have rounded up eight suspects, including some of the relatives of the girl, in the case”, he said.

“The caste difference between the lovers and their plan to marry may have been one of the causes leading to the murder of the boy”.

He further said the police was questioning the suspects and the facts of the case would come to light within the next few days.

Meanwhile, relatives and friends of the deceased too are suspecting the hand of the relatives of the girl in the murder.

“They were having an affair for more than one year now and were in fact planning to marry. Since the girl was from upper caste and the boy was from low caste, it was not liked by the relatives of the girl who murdered the boy”, claimed Sarfaraz Choudhary, a friend of the deceased.