Shopian deaths still a mystery,case badly handled from the very start

Locals alleged that the police were trying to hush up the case and shielding “someone within” — Shopian SP Javaid Iqbal Matoo has now been transferred. But this snowballed into a crisis when police and the civil administration,including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah,publicly endorsed the Shopian police version of the incident.

The Indian Express travelled to the spot,spoke to the family and scanned police statements to piece together all that had transpired ever since the women went missing.

On May 29,the Ahangar family was busy with routine chores. Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar (33) was at his furniture shop in the town while wife Nilofar (22) was at home with their two-year-old son Suzzaine Shakeel. Shakeel’s father Abdul Gani Ahangar had married twice. Shakeel is the eldest of four children — two sons and two daughters — from the second wife. His three step-brothers live separately next door.

That evening,Shakeel returned home at 7.30 pm to find that Nilofar and younger sister Asiya (17) had gone to the family orchard 2 km away. “My sister Romi Jan told me that they hadn’t returned. I didn’t pay much attention,thought it was normal. But once it started getting dark,I decided to go and fetch them. I would do that whenever they were in the orchard.”

Around 8.30 pm,Shakeel went looking for his wife and sister. “Our orchard is spread over four kanal and is not that far. There are houses around it. I never imagined something so bad would happen. It is not isolated at all.”

Shakeel didn’t find the two women in the orchard. He decided to check at the house of Ghulam Qadir Mir,close to the orchard. “I spoke to his wife. She told me that she saw my wife and sister leaving for home,that she had asked them to stay with them for the night as it was late,” he said. “She said they were not worried and left saying people were still walking around and it was fine.” He returned home,thinking they had gone visiting relatives on the way back. “Once home,I looked around and checked with the relatives. Most of our family lives in the neighbourhood,” he said.

Unable to find them,Shakeel panicked. He called a friend and they set out to search the orchard again. “At 10.30 pm,we went to the police station. I met Munshi Riyaz Ahmad there,” Shakeel said. “They registered a missing report and sent policemen with us to search the area. One of the officers,Mohan Dev Singh,came with us. We took lanterns along because it was pitch dark.” They all searched the area surrounding the orchard till 2.30 am but the women were nowhere to be seen. “We looked everywhere. The policemen finally asked me to return to the station in the morning to search again,” he said.

Early in the morning,Shakeel and his relatives reached the police station. “They didn’t open the door and we decided to search on our own. We began looking around the road to the orchard. The policemen too joined us soon.”

The road to the orchard goes past a J-K Police and CRPF camp and leads to a bridge over Rambiaar nullah. The orchard is half-an-hour’s walk from there. The body of Nilofar was found 40 feet away from the bridge. “There was a dry patch in the middle of the stream and her body was there. A policeman spotted the body,” Shakeel said. “It was in bad shape,her clothes were torn. I couldn’t muster the courage to look at her for long. There were visible marks of violence on her wrists and throat,scratches on her face.” He said hundreds of villagers had gathered there by then. “I broke down,” he said. Eyewitnesses claimed police did not secure the spot and took the body to the police station.

The CRPF and J-K Police camps are visible from the spot where Nilofar’s body was found. It is a high-security zone,patrolled regularly by the police as the Deputy Commissioner and other officials live there.

The search for 17-year-old Asiya continued and her body was found a kilometre downstream. “Her clothes were torn and there was blood on her head and mouth. When I saw her,I placed my jacket on her body,” said Mohammad Ashraf Ahangar,her elder step-brother. The police were not present at the spot and the family took the body home — loss of crucial evidence. Thereafter,Asiya’s body was taken to the hospital for postmortem.

Word that the two women had been found dead spread across Shopian town. While a team of local doctors,including Dr Hilal Dalal and Dr Nazia,prepared for an autopsy,agitated villagers gathered outside the hospital. The doctors found it difficult to conduct a per vaginal (PV) examination because the limbs were too stiff. The doctors said they decided against the procedure,fearing loss of evidence.

A neighbour,Zamrooda,who bathed Nilofar’s body before the funeral,said she noticed red marks on her back and right arm. “The jewellery was intact but the fists were clenched. We had to cut the rings and the gold bangles to remove them,” she said. This,people said,was proof that the assailants had no motive to rob the women.

The initial claim by officials that the women had drowned was negated by the first medical examination — doctors didn’t find either body in a condition that suggested drowning. Moreover,it was difficult to believe that the two women would have drowned in ankle-deep water.

The presence of SP Matoo in the hospital angered the crowd outside. Another woman doctor,Dr Bilqees,was called in but the situation seemed to be getting out of control. The doctors left without completing the postmortem. But the team had taken samples of the viscera.

Once the situation calmed down somewhat,a fresh postmortem was planned and a new team of doctors was called in from Pulwama. So great was local suspicion and anger that Nilofar’s father Syed Abdul Hai made doctors promise there would be a fair examination. “After they came out,Dr Nighat Chiloo wept,” Hai said.

In Srinagar,the J-K Police,meanwhile,issued a statement ruling out rape and murder and citing drowning as the cause of death. The statement claimed that “postmortem conducted revealed no marks of violence on the dead bodies,including private parts”. This statement was retracted later.

The police statement fuelled local anger and people began questioning how the bodies ended up in an area under constant vigil. On June 1,when the Chief Minister reiterated the police version on the cause of death,there was more anger.

Omar Abdullah announced a high-level judicial probe too but it could not calm tempers. The Government continued to delay registration of a rape and-murder case and resisted calls for making public the postmortem findings.

For Shakeel,this tragedy has another painful aspect. Nilofar belonged to the Syed clan and her family had opposed her marriage to Shakeel. But she went ahead. “Her parents had finally come around and were planning to invite us home soon. She was very happy about it,” he said. “We were very happy. I had taken her to Delhi,Ajmer and Agra for a honeymoon. My life is now a nightmare.”