HOSHIARPUR CHILD'S RAPE-MURDER SHARPENS PUNJAB DIVIDE

PUNJABI VS PURVIAS

- TARUNI GANDHI

Punjab is once again confronting a volatile mix of grief, anger and politics after the rape and murder of a five-year-old boy in Hoshiarpur allegedly by a migrant worker.

The incident has not only shaken the conscience of the state but also reopened an old wound - the tension between Punjabis and migrant workers, commonly referred to as Parvasis or Purvias, largely hailing from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The crime itself was brutal and swift. On September 9, the boy was abducted outside a gurdwara in Hoshiarpur. CCTV cameras captured him being taken away on a twowheeler by a shop helper named Nanke, reportedly under the influence of alcohol. Police managed to apprehend him within hours of the complaint being filed, but the child had already been killed. Forensic reports revealed he was murdered within half an hour of being taken. His body was discovered in a cremation ground. The family, who had shifted to Hoshiarpur just six months earlier, were left devastated.

The brutality of the crime spread outrage across Punjab. Protests erupted in multiple towns and villages. Slogans such as "Parvasi bhajao, Punjab bachao" rang out, with demonstrators insisting that outsiders were behind rising crime in the state. Nihang groups also joined in, while the grieving parents demanded a public hanging of the accused.