The double rape and murder case that has put Kashmir on the edge took a new turn on Thursday when two “witnesses” told a court that they had heard cries for help from inside a security vehicle the day the two women disappeared.

The vehicle, they said, had been parked near a bridge on the Rambiyar stream from where the bodies were recovered the next day.

The two witnesses voluntarily approached the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the case and were taken to the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shopian, to record their statement.

The eyewitnesses—Ghulam Mohideen and Abdul Rasheed Pampori—claimed they were on their way home that evening when they saw a security vehicle and heard women’s cries for help.

Mohideen, who runs a shop near the camps of the J-K Police’s Special Operations Group and the CRPF near the bridge, was walking home along with Pampori, a customer. The SIT confirmed that the statement of the two eyewitnesses was recorded before the court today. “Yes, the two witnesses wanted to make a statement and we took them before the magistrate to record what they had to say,” SIT chief SP Shahdeen Malik said.

He, however, denied that they were in the custody of the SIT for security purposes.

Mohideen and Pampori had first approached the Fact Finding Committee set up by the Shopian Bar Association. “They (Mohideen and Pampori) approached us a fortnight ago and we recorded their statement,” said Advocate Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, the head of the panel.

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