"I don't know if that is an adequate term to describe it. There is much more to that.

It is not just a crime of rape, it is premeditated, and heinously implemented. They kept her captive almost for a week in the precinct of a temple, can you believe it!

"As facts come out in the media, you get to learn that it was a conspiracy. The worst possible thing is they added religious rites to it and she was raped one more time by a policeman when she was almost dead. It is sickening."

Mohammad Shafi Pandit, the first Kashmiri Muslim to enter the IAS, led a delegation of retired bureucrats to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in 2016 after violence rocked Kashmir in the wake of Hizbul Mujahideen 'commander' Burhan Wani's killing.

In conversation with Rediff.com's Archana Masih, Pandit discusses the brutal murder of a child that has shaken the conscience of India, and its deeper intent at killing the idea of India.

Read the interview here.