Activist, who led protests against Kathua rape, accused of sexually violating JNU student

Writing in FirstPost, an anonymous JNU student accused "an activist from Jammu [who] rose to prominence as an anti-rape crusader leading the cause of justice for the Kathua rape victim" of sexual violation. News reports have since identified the activist as Talib Hussain, an activist from the Bakarwal community of Jammu. However, THE WEEK has not received any independent confirmation, and the FirstPost account does not name the assaulter. "I was one of those students who had invited him to JNU campus," the JNU student wrote in her account. "But subsequently, in his personal conversations with me, he proved to be very invasive of personal boundaries. He asked me a lot of questions about my family, my research work, and my political beliefs. I would not have minded any of this had he not abruptly asked me one day to do nikaah with him. This was in mid-April, just after his second visit to JNU. I told him that it is a very inappropriate thing to ask me. But he did not stop calling me. Often he would call me late at night; while I enquired about his safety and whether he had been given adequate protection from possible attacks, he would ignore my concerned questions and describe his sexual fantasies about me."

ALSO READ: THE WEEK's interview with Talib Hussain

The JNU student further writes that after repeated invitations to meet, she was taken by the Jammu activist to a one-room apartment where she was raped. "That night, mine was NOT a feeble no. I threatened to expose him to all my friends in JNU, I pleaded with him, I even physically wrestled against his brute strength; but my resistance seemed too frail compared to his brutality. I remember crying in pain; but instead, he mocked me, saying “Tum bohot naazuk ho.” All the while he raped me, he kept insisting that he would do nikaah with me, as if by declaring his intention to marry he would legitimise what he was doing. I was in great pain after that night; consultation with gynaecologists revealed that I had suffered an anal fissure," the article claimed.

After the news broke, senior Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising wrote in The Leaflet that she would no longer be representing Hussain who had alleged custodial torture by the police; he has other pending cases, including one for domestic assault, levelled against him. "In the light of the article published today in FirstPost,  I do not intend to continue to appear on behalf of Talib Hussain anymore. I take the decision in view of my full support of the #MeToo movement," she wrote. 

Kashmiri activist and JNU student Shehla Rashid, who was one of the more outspoken critics of the BJP government in the Kathua rape case, said she stood with the survivor in the case. "This is very serious. One more charge of rape against Talib Hussain. The survivor fears that there are many others who have been abused by Talib. I stand in solidarity with the survivor[s]. I'd encourage them to take legal action, if they're reading this," she tweeted.