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Rape case lodged, separatists arrested
The unrest stoked by the mysterious murder and rape of a teenager and a woman in south Kashmir’s Shopian district continued to keep the Valley on the boil for the seventh consecutive day on Sunday, reports Rashid Ahmad.
The unrest stoked by the mysterious murder and rape of a teenager and a woman in south Kashmir’s Shopian district continued to keep the Valley on the boil for the seventh consecutive day on Sunday.
Though the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday registered a rape case in connection with the death of two women, whose bodies were fished out of stream in Shopian, 52 km from Srinagar, last week after they went missing from an orchard.
Residents and relatives alleged they were raped and murdered by security forces. A CRPF camp and district police lines are headquartered in the area where bodies of Asiya (17) and her sister-in-law Nelofar (22) were recovered.
However, the police have not added Section 302 (murder) in the FIR as the cause of death of the two women was yet to be conclusively established.
Forensics tests had said analysis of the vaginal swabs of the two women had indicated presence of semen, the sources said.
The deaths continue to keep the Valley on edge. Thirty people, including seven women, were injured in clashes with police and paramilitary personnel amid a complete shutdown observed across the Kashmir valley.
Police resorted to tear-smokes shells and cane charge to break a protest march organised by Dukhataran-e-Millat (DeM) near Jamia Masjid (grand mosque) in Srinagar.
In view of Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s call for a march to Shopian on Monday, the police have launched a major crackdown on separatists. Besides other senior separatist leaders, Geelani too was arrested late Saturday night.
