BY SHABIR IBN YUSUF

SRINAGAR (INDIA) Feb 01 : Two sisters of Sopore who were shot dead by unidentified gunmen after abduction yesterday evening were buried in local grave and family, relatives and neighbours deny the involvement of girls in any anti-social activity.

Mehrajudin, the uncle of these slain girls told reporters that they are unable to understand the killings. “Our daughters were not involved in anti-social activity,” he said adding they were innocent.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead two sisters in Sopore town on late Monday evening, police said. “Gunmen barged into the house of Ghulam Nabi Dar at Muslim Peer and abducted his two daughters Kulsuma and Rehana . Their bullet riddled bodies were recovered from Mohalla Rahim Sahib a few minutes after their abduction,” police sources said. They said gunmen managed to escape under the cover of darkness.

Recalling the incident Mehrajudin said that the door of their house was knocked by somebody yesterday late in the evening. “We thought it would be neighbour ,but as we opened the door two young wielding youth, masked and speaking Kashmir asked us to handover Kulsooma and Rehana,” he said adding that “The gun wielding persons told us that they wanted to talk with the girls.”

Mehrajudin said the gun wielding youth threatened to kill all of us incase they do not hand over the girls to them. “We handed over Kulsooma and Rehana to them and they forced us to stay indoors,” he said adding that they were preparing to move the police station to file a report and in the meanwhile there were some gunshots.

“We approached police and a search party of police brought the girls in a vehicle and shifted them to hospital,” he said adding that doctors declared them brought dead. “The police handed over the bodies to us at around 11.45 pm,” Mehrajudin said.

The family lives in two rooms and the father of the deceased girls is working in CAPD department as store keeper. At the time of incident he was away at mosque for late evening prayers.

At time of incident Mehrajudin said that there were two other women, both aunts of Kulsooma and Rehana in the house, besides a young girl, and a relative who had come to visit the family. The women raised an alarm and ran after the gunmen, but stopped following threats from the gunmen he said. Mehrajudin said that Dar’s elder son lives with his maternal uncles at another village while as his younger son was at home when his sisters were abducted.

Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Zone, S M Sahai, said and police is investigating the case however said LeT militants killed the two sisters after kidnapping them from their home.

Though no militant outfit has claimed the responsibility of killing of Kulsooma and Rehana however, SP Sopore Muhammad Altaf Khan blamed the Lasker-e- Toiba militants for the killing two sisters and claim that they have identified them.

Meanwhile the life in Sopore was normal and there were no protest demonstrations or strike in town. Transport was plying, shops were open and government offices were functioning normally.

This is the first such incident in Kashmir in a long time. Militants had in fact, been desisting from attacking women following a public outcry. Sopore is stated to be a militant hub where police and other security agencies are engaged in a constant cat-and-mouse game with militants.

Meanwhile Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Oma r Abdullah today stated that violence in all its manifestations was condemnable, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today strongly condemned the killing of the two teenaged sisters in Sopore by unknown gunmen late last evening.

Talking to media persons, Omar angrily asked, "Why this was done, I find it difficult to understand. Obviously no one has the guts to take responsibility and this brings out the contradictions in Kashmir. If there was the slightest indication of high handedness of the forces today the whole valley would have been up in flames but since terrorist are involved, condemnation, if any, is muted. All kinds of violence have to condemn."

Showing his anger, Chief Minister wrote on his twitter page, "If you can't condemn the killing of these two girls, irrespective of your political beliefs & do so without qualifying it then shame on you.

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