Murder or Suicide? Bandipora family stage protest seeks intervention of district police chief

Srinagar, Aug 24: Beseeching the police to arrest the accused persons for ‘murdering’ their daughter, a family from North Kashmir’s Bandipora district Thursday said the husband and in-laws of their deceased daughter are trying to portray ‘murder’ as ‘suicide.
“Let us assume for a moment, that my sister as per the police, committed suicide. Why she was bearing torture marks on her body? During the ablution of the dead, we found torture marks on her back, legs, and arms and even marks of cigarette butts on her body,” Imtiyaz Ahmed Bhat – the brother of the victim told the news agency Kashmir News Trust.

The family from Malangam Bandipora emerged in Press Enclave Srinagar to attract the attention of authorities about what they called the ‘gruesome murder’ of their recently wedded daughter.
As per the protesters who were carrying placards seeking justice, Ishrat (22), a resident of Malangam Bandipora was wedded to a man (carpenter by profession) from a neighboring village of Koil Muqam six months ago.
“Six days back, we got a phone call from a man who lives in our village that Ishrat has died at her in-laws house. We along with some respectable villagers rushed to Koil Muqam and to our shock, we were informed that the body had been shifted to the hospital for postmortem. We were not allowed to have a glimpse of the dead body. We don’t know the reason why the police and the in-laws of Ishrat didn’t wait for us and why it shifted the body immediately for the post-mortem,” Imtiyaz Ahmed said adding that they were informed that Ishrat had committed suicide.
“Neither the police nor the in-laws of Ishrat informed us about the incident,” the protesters claimed.
“It was only during the ablution of the dead body that our female relatives found the torture marks on the body. They photographed the dead body and we showed it to the police post Paribal where the police officer assured us that the investigation would be conducted on a fast-track basis. Police have registered a case under CrPc 174 related to suicide.”
The protesters said that there was no reason for Ishrat to commit suicide. “The in-laws of Ishrat were having some dispute over land with their relatives and maybe she got killed during a scuffle. We are sure that she didn’t commit the suicide and want culprits to be arrested who are still roaming free,” they said and demanded justice.
The protesters said that police have been waiting for the FSL report but they want the culprits behind the bar. They sought the personal intervention of the District police chief in this case. [KNT]