Srinagar, July 04: Welcoming the High Court order to
exhume the bodies of two women allegedly raped and killed in
Shopian, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday said the move will help in establishing the facts in this case
which have evoked strong reactions in the valley.
The Chief Minister was of the view that any move that
will help establish the fact in this case will go a long way
in addressing the anger of people.
"I think it is a welcome development. The government is
keen that we establish the facts in this case. The interim
report submitted by the (Retd Justice Muzzafar Jan) Commission
has raised questions about the post mortems that were
conducted and whether anything could be determined from them.
"The High Court has decided that an exhumation followed
by an in-depth post-mortem is the best way to establish the
facts in this case and that is exactly what we want," he said.
Kashmir was on a boil after 22 year-old Neelofar Jan and
her 17-year-old sister-in-law Asiya Jan were allegedly raped
and murdered on the intervening night of May 29 and 30 in
Shopian.
The Jan Commission, appointed by Abdullah on June 3,
was of the view that the conduct of the some of the officials,
including doctors who conducted the first post-mortem on the
victims and an official of the Forensic Science Laboratory had
led to loss of crucial evidence.
Abdullah said the anger against the Shopian killings was
based on people's impression that some effort was going on to
cover it up.
Asked how long it will take before the perpetrators of
the crime are brought to justice, the Chief Minister said,
"You cannot pre-judge how long it will take. It could take
days, (it could take) weeks."
Asserting that the process will be transparent, he said
this is "not going to be one of those probes where facts are
made known but they are either buried or no action is taken".
Asked whether the exhumation of the bodies comes a little
late, he said, he did not believe it was "too late".
"The High Court has taken some inputs to whether an
exhumation at this point in time would be beneficial or not.
They clearly have been led to understand that even at this
point, if we were to exhume the bodies, conduct an in-depth
post-mortem, we may be able to gather some evidence that was
perhaps missed in the earlier post-mortem," he said.
He also noted that the Jan Commission and SIT were
working together to put the pieces together to establish what
happened and who were perpetrators.
Bureau Report