Prostitution pins down politics

The recent scandal in Kashmir exposes a nexus that thrives in the changing social landscape of the Valley Iftikhar Gilani Kashmir A sex scandal involving young girls coerced into prostitution and abused by senior politicians, bureaucrats, police, and security force officials is rocking the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government and has resulted in a bitter feud within the ruling alliance. The Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are both blaming each other for hushing up the scandal while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has closed ranks with the Islamic radicals in Kashmir demanding disclosure of the names and punishment of the officials involved. It is reported that at least two Congress politicians close to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad are involved in the scandal. Asia Andrabi, chief of the ultra-radical women's group Dukhtaran-e-Millat, which raided a number of sleaze centres in Srinagar and its outskirts last week told Hardnews that her group found at least 50 current and former legislators and ministers involved in the scandal. According to Andrabi, about 300 girls from the Valley are working as sex workers. Accusing the government of promoting and patronising prostitution in Kashmir, Andrabi says that when her organisation launched a campaign against sex trade in August 2005, she was imprisoned by former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed himself. For their part, government sources say that this issue is being taken very seriously. "It is no longer just a probe into a sex scam; it is a bigger investigation into the blatant misuse of power by people holding high offices and using it to force teenagers into prostitution," said one official. The case has been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the High Court is monitoring it on a daily basis. The lid was blown off this scandal when a 15-year-old girl Yasmin revealed that she was forced to become a sex worker by a high-profile woman named Sabeena. Yasmeen and many other young girls like her were forced by Sabeena to serve government officials, ministers, police and security forces officials. The police report says Yasmeen has provided names of 48 people involved in the racket including two former ministers, top office bearer of the Congress party, three SSPs, seven DSPs, a BSF DIG, 10 local businessmen and many other government officials. It all began with a CD that was produced before the police on March 14, 2006 by some citizens of Shaheedgunj locality. "I was a student of eighth grade when I first met Sabeena at a party in Habbakadal. She told me she would arrange a job for me. When I went to see her at her house, there was no one there except a government gunman, Merajuddin, who drugged me. I don't know what happened afterwards," says Yasmeen's police file. She said that soon after this, a salacious CD featuring Yasmeen appeared in the market and she had to drop out of school. Despite this disclosure, police let Sabeena off the very next day because of “pressures from above”. It was only after a national newspaper reported the scandal on April 29 that the state government re-arrested Sabeena. Allegations of important government functionaries and ministers being involved in the sex trade first surfaced in 2004. Sensing the devastating ramifications of a scandal, the then chief minister asked the police to keep the probe results under wraps. Hence, within days after the registration of a case against Sabeena in October 2004, the case was hushed up. But, the Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beg refutes such reports. "The case never reached the chief minister. Even after the case re-surfaced the DGP Gopal Sharma told us it is an inconsequential case," he says, blaming local police for the cover up.