Anantnag: The family members of a woman who was murdered in the house of her in-laws on December 6 held a protest outside the office of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Kokernag here on Thursday, alleging that the police were lax in carrying out the investigation.
Nousheena, 28, mother of three toddlers, married to Hilal Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Magam village in Kokernag area of Anantnag, was killed allegedly by the extended family of her in-laws on December 6.
“She was attacked with an axe and had a wound in her head that was inches deep,” Nousheena’s father, Abdul Rehman Wani, told Kashmir Reader. “But the extended family of her in-laws, who live in the same house, called us and said her blood pressure had shot up.”
Wani said that the “killers” did not let her family members go near her while they ferried her to the nearby hospital and then to the Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital in Anantnag.
“There was no police accompanying them to the hospital. We would have thought she died a natural death had we not found the wound in her head, while preparing her body for the burial,” Wani said.
While police have registered a case and 5 out of the 7 people Wani had identified have already been arrested and are being questioned, the family fears that the investigation is taking too long to be reliable.
“It (the investigation) might have been rigged already. Police have not arrested all of them and I have heard that even the ones behind bars are allowed to go home during the night,” Wani said, adding that the family only wants the truth to come out, for the sake of his daughter’s little children.
Wani lamented that Nousheena’s children are yet to come to terms with what had befallen them.
“Their father is already battling a serious disease and was in a hospital in Srinagar even on the day Nousheena was murdered. For the past month we have been visiting the police station on daily basis but the police are telling us nothing,” Wani said.
SDM Kokernag Salib Sehran, while acknowledging that Nousheena’s family met him, said that the police were conducting an investigation and the SDPO Kokernag was personally looking into the case.
“I have talked to him in the morning as well. The case is being investigated thoroughly. I have requested them to conduct a thorough, water-tight probe into the matter to bring out the truth,” the SDM said.
Kashmir Reader talked to the SDPO, Arif Malik, who also maintained that a thorough probe was being conducted. “A murder case has been registered and I have appointed as many as 3 Investigating Officers in the case. It is a murder case and in such cases the investigations do take time,” the SDPO said.

Suhail A Shah