Delhi based Journalist Tarique Anwar wrote open letter to Asifa

Dear Asifa,

We met your parents recently at your place at Rasana in Kathua district of Jammu. They miss you a lot. This is the second ocassion when they are faced with such a difficult time. We were shocked when we heard that you had lost your two brothers and one elder sister in a road accident earlier and you were the only daughter left in your family.

The two elder brothers of yours burst into tears when I asked them about you. I was informed by your parents that the younger among them – who was extremely talkative and used to tease you – hardly speaks.

Your mother whom you used to call ‘mamma’ was showing us the clothes, school bag, chappel and shoe you left behind. She was inconsolable and we ran short of words to calm her down.

She told us that you were unable to control hunger for food. You were kept inside the temple and the cattle shed without food before your murder. She was literally shivering while talking about the brutality you faced in just eight years of your life.

Your daddy has gone into depression because you were close to him. He is surviving on heavy dose of anti-depressants. We saw his prescription.

But believe me, you rule their hearts. You are alive among them. You are not at all dead.

Do you know one thing? Our consciousness is now dead. Few years ago, we at least had little bit of consciousness left when we came on the road seeking justice for Nirbhaya. But now we have stooped to a level were we hold our national flag in hand and come out in support for the bloody monstrous instead of seeking justice for you. All such inhuman act is now being accepted as a new normal things in our ‘New India’.

May Almighty grant you the highest place in heaven and give strength to your family. Aameen