Shopian, on the southern tip of the Kashmir valley, has always been known for its scenic beauty, apple orchards and a historic road that passes through it. In fact, Kashmir’s turbulent history began here, when the Mughals finally crossed the mighty Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas that had stood like a wall defending Kashmir from the invading armies for centuries. Shopian, however, gradually lost its importance as the gateway to the valley but constant contact with other cultures turned it into an intellectually fertile land. From Jamaat-e-Islami to communism, Shopian has been home to extreme political ideologies and orientations. Jamaat ideologue Ghulam Ahmad Ahrar, Communist thinker Abdul Sattar Ranjoor and journalist Shameem Ahmad Shameem, all came from its villages.

But this time, Shopian has been making news for a more agonising reason. The painful story of the death of its two daughters and a four-month-long struggle of its residents to find the truth have put it in the centrestage of Kashmir’s larger story of consistent botch-ups by the government, flawed investigations, political opportunism, public distrust and a yearning for justice.

Even as a doctor has confessed to “cooking up’’ the slides of the vaginal swabs of the two women, admitting that the post-mortem was never conducted and the CBI has already exhumed the bodies and collected every possible forensic evidence to ascertain the cause of death and to check if rape was committed, a final word on the case is still far away.

Death at Shopian

... contd.