Army personnel in Jammu and Kashmir have been again accused of rape.
Angry residents of Bhaderwain and adjacent villages in Handwara town, over 100 km from Srinagar, took out a protest march on Sunday against the alleged rape on Saturday night of 30-year-old Aisha and her 12-year-old daughter Shabnum by Rashtriya Rifles personnel.
They marched to the town, in Kupwara district, demanding that the army personnel involved in the alleged crime be brought to book, official sources said.
The agitators alleged that a unit of 30 Rashtriya Rifles descended upon the residence of Abdul Rashid on the pretext of conducting searches, the sources said. According to the protestors, the army men asked Rashid's wife and daughter to show them around the house after asking him to wait outside. Aisha and Shabnum were then raped.
Defense spokesman Lt Col V K Batra, however, told reporters that the allegations were baseless. He said the RR unit was on its way to Shallapur police post, which had come under firing from militants, when it was tipped off about the presence of militants in Rashid's house.
Claiming that the medical examination of the woman and the girl had ruled out rape, Batra, however, said Kupwara district magistrate has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
This is the third allegation of rape against army personnel in the past 10 days. On November 4, an army unit was accused of gang-raping 19-year-old Parveen at Mattan in Anantnag district. A probe has been ordered into the incident.
Last month, two army personnel were accused of gang-raping a girl from Sopore inside a guesthouse at Rajbagh in Srinagar.