Somewhere in Kashmir....

Anger swept through Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday over the killing of two girls by local militants and one suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist late on Monday. Sopore superintendent of police Altaf Khan identified the killers as Muzaffar Naiko and Wasim Gania — students of a madrassa in Muslim Peer locality in Sopore — and the third as an LeT terrorist. Twenty-year-old Akhtara was pumped with four bullets from an AK-47 held inches from her head while her younger sister Arifa (17) was shot in the chest at around 8pm. They were dragged out of sight of their parents and a brother by the terrorists at gunpoint while the girls’ aunts followed them, pleading for their lives. Their cries resounded through the narrow lane of Muslim Peer Mohalla, past 11 shops and hundreds of lit homes, but not one window opened and not a soul stirred. Five hundred yards from their home, the girls were slaughtered. The SP suspects the two girls refused to do the militants’ bidding for which they were killed. “There are around 13 madrassas in Sopore and the government is aware of their existence. We’d informed the authorities about their indoctrination, but nothing was done about it,” said another police officer. SP Khan said these madrassas were breeding grounds for militants. “We have strong inputs that these are run by the Lashkar,” he said. The place they were shot is next to a 300-year-old ‘ziarat’, and the office of local Fruit Growers’ Association, a chemist, and a BSNL dealer. In addition, there is a photo studio and five grocery stores. Yet, none saw or heard anything. The only evidence of their death is the dark brown blood stains in the mud. The girls’ father, Gulam Nabi Dar, works with a government ration shop, and could not afford to educate Akhtara and Arifa. The two unlettered girls embroidered clothes and earned Rs 12 a day. Chief minister Omar Abdullah condemned the killing and said, “The police will certainly get the killers and bring them to justice.”