Khandwa: As the anger and outrage over the brutal gangrape of an 8-year-old in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua boils over, a BJP leader has introduced a bizarre theory to shift the blame for the communalisation of the case.

Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, BJP’s Madhya Pradesh chief, said that he believes that Pakistan has engineered the whole incident.

“If the Jai Shri Ram slogans are raised over the rape of nation’s eight-year-old daughter in Kashmir, then Pak agents would have done something so that they created rift among us,” said Chauhan on the sidelines of a BJP fast organised in his home district of Khandwa.

The BJP MP chief went on to claim that Hindus comprised only 1 per cent population in Kashmir and they can’t even speak, so there was no question of them raising slogans to demand release for the accused.

“If state like Kashmir is witnessing something like this, then there could be involvement of Pak agents,” he said.

The eight-year-old girl was kidnapped and held captive from a village in Jammu's Kathua district on January 10. She was starved, sedated and repeatedly raped inside a ‘devisthan’ before being murdered and dumped in a nearby forest.

The chilling details of the crime were revealed in the chargesheet filed on Monday. It has evoked nationwide horror. Eight men have been arrested for the crime.

The gang-rape and murder of the 8-year-old wasn't a regular crime, police said. It was a rape inflicted with purpose - to fulfil an agenda, to instil fear and drive away a few nomad families from their lands. Rape, here was deliberate and used as a weapon.

The eight men in police custody have been supported by two BJP MLAs part of Mehbooba Mufti’s cabinet. Chaudhary Lal Singh, minister for forest, and Chander Prakash Ganga, minister for commerce and industries, attended an event organised by Hindu Ekta Manch, an outfit that has been protesting against the arrests in the case.

Congress’ MP chief Arun Yadav said that Chauhan’s bizarre remarks were an attempt to shield BJP’s failures.