By IANS,
Srinagar: Suspected separatist guerrillas barged into a house in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district and shot dead a 20-year-old girl in front of her father sparking outrage.
The gory slaying took place late Tuesday in Keller village, 50 km from here, when an unidentified man came to their house and asked for the names of family members, the girl’s father and sister said Wednesday.
When Shiraza Akhtar revealed her identity, the man took out a revolver and shot her dead without speaking a word, the grieving father said.
The killer escaped, leaving the family too stunned to react.
“Shiraza received a fatal bullet wound in her head and succumbed to injuries before she could be taken to hospital,” a police official said.
Police quickly reached the spot and hunted for the gunman but in vain.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack that came hours after thousands held massive protests in Shopian town against a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report on two women found dead in a village stream in May.
Those two deaths had led to widepsread protests in the state amid allegations that they were raped and killed by the security forces. The CBI’s contention that the two women drowned to death and were not raped has caused another round of demonstrations.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah condemned the Akhtar’s murder, identifying the killers as separatist guerrillas.
“They (terrorists) don’t believe in the principles of human rights, they always shout for human rights and kill whoever they want. We should strongly condemn this brutal killing. We have to make sure that justice is done in this case,” Abdullah, who is also president of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party, told reporters in Chandigarh.
Lashing out at separatist leaders, Abdullah stated: “Separatists shout each time on the issue of human rights. Why are they quite on this issue? The killing of an innocent girl is intolerable.”
Abdullah was in Chandigarh to take part in a meet on renewable energy.