By IANS,
New Delhi : Demanding “most stringent punishment” to the guilty, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday said the alleged “cover-up” attempts by the Jammu and Kashmir government in the rape and murder of two women was “reprehensible”.
The CPI-M central committee in a statement said: “The initial efforts of the local administration to cover-up the truth and to pass it off as an incident of drowning is extremely reprehensible.”
“Most unfortunate” was that the incident took place “when hopes had been raised that some semblance of normalcy was returning to the state”, the statement said.
The CPI-M urged the state government to assure speedy investigation and “most stringent punishment will be meted out to the guilty”.
The Kashmir Valley has been rocked by violent protests against the rape and murder in south Kashmir’s Shopian town of two women – Neelofar Jan, 22, and Asiya Jan, 17 – whose bodies were found in a stream May 30.
The state government has ordered a judicial probe headed by a retired high court judge. The protesters have been alleging that the two were raped and then murdered by the security forces.