Shopian victims' family slam CBI report

Srinagar: Following Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report giving clean chit to the four accused policemen in the Shopian rape and double murder case, a local group Majlis Mashawarat and the victim families have called for a bandh in Kashmir on Tuesday as a mark of protest.

The CBI has ruled that the two women whose bodies were found several months ago were neither raped nor murdered. But activists say they are not convinced the women simply drowned.

Shakeel Ahangar, husband of Neelofar and brother of teenaged Asiya Jan, the two women who were reportedly raped and killed burned the CBI report outside the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

Ahangar and others have been livid at the CBI report that the two girls died due to drowning and there was no evidence of any rape or murder.

The CBI report claimed that the hymen of Asiya was intact when her body was exhumed.

"The two died of drowning. We have filed chargesheet against 13 people including doctors and lawyers for fabricating evidence," CBI counsel Anil Bhan said.

The family and the Majlis committee that has been at the forefront of the agitation have been crying foul. They have been claiming that the two women were raped and murdered allegedly by members of the armed forces in May 2009.

"it was not recovered from the water but from the boulders just lying on the side. We will continue our struggle for the justice. We demand international probe into the matter," Majlis Mashawarat spokesman Mohammad Shafi Khan said.

The Majlis has accused the CBI of subverting truth and said many questions remain unanswered.

Opposition People's Democratic Party, too, said people have lost faith in CBI.

The valley erupted many times over the murder of 22 year-old Neelofar and 17-year old Asiya Jan. A judicial commission had also rejected the rape and murder theory.

Now the CBI report is before the High Court.

For the CBI probing the six-month old incident, the case is clear and stands closed but for the families of the victims the hunt to unravel the truth behind the deaths is far from over.

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