When the Shopian double rape and murder case began unfolding on the last days of May, and the Kashmir Valley erupted in protest, it was urged that the state ensure a thorough and swift investigation and do so in good faith, after it had initially declared that the victims (Asiya, 17, and Nilofer, 22) had drowned. However, the investigation and the report submitted thereafter have themselves been the subject of controversy, with Justice (retired) Muzaffar Jan — heading the one-man judicial commission — dissociating himself from parts of the report. Meanwhile, Shopian had been shut down for 47 days.

It’s undoubtedly reassuring that four suspended police officials have been arrested following the Jammu and Kashmir high court’s order to that effect. The Jan commission had accused them of failing to follow due procedure after the recovery of the victims’ bodies while the SIT’s status report reveals FIRs had been lodged against them for their alleged role in destroying evidence. The high court bench also ordered the collection of blood samples of the officials, having earlier called for the exhumation of the bodies for DNA samples and a fresh autopsy, subject to the families’ consent.

But it’s disturbing that it appears to have needed the chief justice’s assurance on punishing the guilty to end the strike, and his appeal for the public to cooperate with the investigation. That public faith should naturally reside in the administration, and it does not help if people feel they have to protest for every incremental step of justice. The “sit-in protests” will continue till the case next comes up for hearing on July 23. Given J&K’s troubled recent history and the sensitivity of the issue, the government should beware of its potential to allow mischief-makers to capitalise politically on the confusion, contradictory and obfuscating signals and general sense of sloppiness.