Union Minister and former army chief, General (retd) VK Singh, has said that the 8-year-old Asifa will not be ‘denied justice’ adding that ‘we have failed Ashifa as humans.’

Singh took to Twitter to post a screenshot of his statement on the gang-rape and murder of Asifa in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district. He wrote, “We have failed Ashifa as humans. But she will not be denied justice.”

His statement in Hindi said, “There must be a difference between humans and animals and we already have that distinction. But what happened to the 8-year-old child in Kathua shows that being a human is an abusive term. Animals are far better. There wouldn’t be anyone, who may not have been disturbed by this ghastly act. But, keeping my emotions aside, I would like to state that the guilty must be given such a punishment that it should serve a lesson to generations to come.

“One more thing, those who want to protect the guilty must remember that they too will be deemed as criminals. Your support shows that you too are capable of committing such act in future… Please don’t bring disrepute to your religion and country.”

Earlier Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too had expressed his outrage on attempts to deny the family of Asifa justice after it emerged that lawyers and judge in Kathua had prevented the crime branch from submitting the charge-sheet against the accused. The Delhi chief minister had also demanded a death penalty for Asifa’s rapists and murderers.