Srinagar, June 03, KONS: Leader of the opposition in the assembly and the PDP president, Mahbooba Mufti, today rejected the government’s inquiry commission into the Shopian outrage, and called upon the prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, to review the performance of the state’s ruling coalition personally as according to her, it had failed to extent of not registering an FIR of rape and murder in the case.
She said that her party was seeking expert legal counsel to get a case registered with respect to the tragedy.
Mahbooba, who visited the victims’ family in Shopian to pay her condolences, later told a press conference at her residence that the account given by the kin was too harrowing and horrendous for her to narrate as a mother.
She said that the case was not just of a double homicide but a triple murder because one of the victims had been pregnant.
“What greater proof can there be of the failure of the coalition government that no FIR with respect to gang rape and murder has been registered in the police station till now, and the matter is being treated as disappearance and accidental death,” she said.
Mahbooba accused the NC of having planted stone-pelters at various places to attack her motorcade during her Shopian trip, but said that the purpose of her visit had been fulfilled as she had met the victims’ family and led a procession against the outrage.
Rejecting the government’s inquiry commission into the incident, Mahbooba asked what the panel would investigate when the chief minister himself had denied that the victims had been raped and murdered.
“Incidents like Shopian make it amply clear that the PDP’s stand is justified as it has already demanded a complete troop withdrawal from the state and repeal of AFSPA for a resolution of the Kashmir issue,” she said.
She said that she had had a heated argument with the superintendent of police for Shopian on registering a case of rape and murder.
She said that the police officer had been rude to her her and pushed her out of the police station.
Mahbooba said that she would seek expert legal opinion in order to get a proper case registered.
Earlier, on her visit to Shopian, Mahbooba had been assailed by angry residents chanting pro-freedom slogans and demanding her immediate resignation.
Mahbooba, accompanied by party leaders Sartaj Madani, Syed Basharat Bukhari and scores of activists was returning from her visit to the family of the victims of last week’s tragedy when her motorcade was held up by the crowds.
After meeting the victims’ kin, Mahbooba disclosed that only a case of disappearance and accidental death had been filed by the police and there was no FIR for rape and murder.
This enraged the residents who set off in a procession to the police station where Mahbooba had hot words with the officers.
As there had been incidents of violence during her visit, the police station too came under stone pelting, but the PDP leader was later conducted out of the town under tight security.
