The strike call was given by Majlis-e-Mushawarat Shopian (MMS) and was supported by almost all the separatist groups. MMS and separatists rejected the CBI findings and alleged that the “investigating agency shielded the culprits.”
Shops, business establishments, and government offices remained closed. Transport services were adversely affected. Demonstrations were held at several places including Maisuma, old Srinagar city and Shopian.
The protesters clashed with the police. Cops had to burst smoke shells and resort to cane-charge. The demonstrators pelted stones on police. Over a dozen persons sustained injuries.
CBI in its report submitted to the high court said that it has presented charge sheet in a court in Shopian against 13 persons including doctors and lawyers for giving the drowning mishap the colour of rape and murder to defame the police and security forces. A teenaged girl Asiya and her sister-in-law went missing since the afternoon of May 29 when they had gone to their orchard located near the police and security forces camps. Next day their bodies were recovered from a canal.
The affected family and people in Shopian had alleged that they were raped and killed.
Even a judicial commission of inquiry set up by the state government also concluded that the two woman were raped and murdered but did not say as to who had committed the crime.
Meanwhile, People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti has rejected the CBI’s drowning theory.
Addressing a press conference, she appealed to President Pratibha Patil to intervene and take serious note of what she described as “crime against women” in Kashmir.
Law and parliamentary affairs minister Ali Mohammad Sagar said the CBI findings are not final. “The case is with the High Court. The CBI has filed its report. Our government will wait for the court verdict,” he said.
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