Kathua Child - We Weep For You! Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

Kathua - the place
Backerwals - the shepherds
who travel to sell
their goats and sheep
before they return back
to their mountain-homes and hills.
But this time it was so different
they lost their little girl
to gangrape and murder.
Where was virtue and principle hiding
where was goodness and righteousness hiding
when those men like savages
without fear of sin
used an eight year old girl
to satiate their lust
before killing her mercilessly? .
Was crime so efficient in its game
that neither their eyes
nor mind could see
she was just a child,
an eight year old girl
who must have never known
what it was to have men
upon her, within her, on her.
How poor and helpless are those who weep
for their child in silence of grief?
Will Backerwals ever forget the pain
they feel, they saw, they hold within...?