The brutal gang rape and murder of an eight-year old girl has sparked outrage and anger across India.

The family of the raped and murdered eight-year-old quietly abandoned their home in Rasana village out of fear late on Tuesday after the Jammu Bar Association called a strike to protest the J&K police’s ‘mishandling’ of the investigation into the case.

According to media reports, Asifa’s father Muhammad Yusuf Pujwala has left for an unknown place along with his wife, two children and livestock. Earlier, it was said that the family was planning to leave for Kashmir next month, reports The Times of India.

The separatist Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, on Thursday accused the state administration and police of being ‘mute spectators’ while the Jammu Bar Association, with the active support of Bhim Singh’s Jammu Kashmir Panthers Party, was enforcing bandhs and taking out rallies ‘in favour of the rapists and murderers’.

Meanwhile, civil society members have also come out in protest against the gruesome crime. On Wednesday, students, youths and civil society members held a protest at Pratap Park in Srinagar.

Leading the demonstration, former vice-president of JNU students union Shehla Rashid said it was a protest against blatant attempts to communalise the case and warned BJP ‘to keep its dirty politics out of Jammu and Kashmir’. ‘We won’t allow a Gujarat to happen here. Don’t these so-called lawyers have children? Can they not even empathise with a child?’ she said.

The protesters demanded the arrest of the lawyers who tried ‘to obstruct justice’ by not allowing the crime branch to file a chargesheet in the case. The protesters also demanded that the trial be transferred out of Kathua so that it could proceed without fear and disruption.

The protesters demanded removal of ministers Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, who had participated in anti-police rallies. ‘This is the very least that chief minister Mehbooba Mufti can do,’ said Shehla Rashid.