‘Hero’ of Shopian agitation booked for 'attempted murder'

Wife Shobi Jan narrates to judge how Shakeel Ahangar sprinkled kerosene oil on her to burn her to death

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
__________

SRINAGAR, May 8: In a bizarre development that can turn a many faces of Kashmir's separatist movement red, Police in Shopian have booked middle-aged Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar for allegedly attempting to burn his second wife to death. In 2009, Ahangar had virtually set the Valley on fire with his allegation that Police and security forces had "gangraped and murdered" his wife Neelofar Jan and unmarried sister Asiya Jan. Resultant street turbulence had left half-a-dozen civilians dead and hundreds injured.

Superintendent of Police in Shopian Altaf Khan confirmed that Ahangar had been booked in a matter of attempted murder on his second wife Shobi Jan’s written complaint in case FIR No: 67/2015 under sections 498-A, 323, 354, 342, 307 of Rabir Penal Code. He said that the investigation was underway and the accused could be arrested at an appropriate time.

According to Shobi Jan’s complaint dated May 5, 2015, filed with Police Station Shopian, Shakeel Ahangar, alongwith Manzoor Ahmad Ahangar and Auqib Ahangar sons of Abdul Gani Ahangar and Roomi Jan daughter of Abdul Gani Ahangar, subjected her to immense physical and mental torture on account of her parents' failure to carry dowry to her in-laws. Ahangar and his siblings allegedly sprinkled kerosene oil on her body during the night of May 4th and attempted to burn her to death.

After a preliminary verification, Police filed FIR No: 67 with charge of attemted murder against Ahangar and the other accused persons. After the spot inspection, Police prepared a site plan and got the complainant’s statement recorded before a judicial magistrate under section 161 and 164 of Criminal Procedure Code. Shobi Jan narrated to the judge how Ahangar tried to kill her by sprinkling kerosene oil on her body. Her clothes were seized, sealed and resealed before the Executive Magistrate Ist Class Shopian for FSL examination.

Sources privy to the investigation revealed to State Times that Ahangar and his family members could be arrested any time in the next 24 hours. Senior separatist leader Shabir Shah's visit to Shopian on Friday deferred Ahangar’s arrest for a day.

Shakeel Ahangar shot into prominence in May 2009 when his wife Neelofar and sister Asiya were found dead in mysterious circumstances in Rambiara Nallah and he complained that the duo had been "kidnapped and subjected to gangrape by Police and security forces before the two young women were murdered”.

Ahangar’s allegations triggered off a massive street turbulence across the Valley, leading to torching of properties, shutdown for several weeks, violent clashes between the Police and demonstrators. Over six civilians died in the Police firing.

While the Valley observed bandh on calls of Majlis-e-Mashawarat Shopian and separatist leaders for several days, Shopian district headquarters remained shut down for business for about a month. After some investigation by Police and an inquiry by retired judge of J&K High Court, Muzaffar Ahmad Jan, the investigation was assigned to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The demonstrations led to the arrest and suspension of four Police officials including then S.P. of Shopian Javed Iqbal Matoo.

Omar Abdullah’s government hired the country's most expensive lawyer Harish Salve only to ensure that the detained Police officials did not get bail from any court of law. Interestingly, it was for the first time that Advocate General, other government advocates, Kashmir's separatist Bar Association and Mr Salve were on one page to block the deatainees' release on bail. Government had apprehension of a worse law and order situation if the accused Police officials were released.

Even as Ahangar, residents of Shopian, separatist leaders as well as some mainstream politicians, notably the PDP President Mehbooba Mufti, maintained in one voice that Police and security forces had committed rape and murder of the two women, CBI established in three-month-long investigation that they had been neither raped nor murdered. It concluded that Neelofar and Asiya had died by drowning in Rambiara while returning from their orchard in the evening. After exhumation of the bodies, it was established that the unmarried woman’s hymen was intact and she or her sister-in-law had not been subjected to any physical violence.

Giving clean chit to Javed Matoo and other detainees, CBI filed a voluminous charge-sheet against 13 persons, including 11 Shopian-based lawyers and doctors, for hatching up a conspiracy and trying to frame innocent Police officials in a false criminal case for ulterior motives. The case is under hearing with a CBI designated court in Srinagar.

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‘Hero’ of Shopian agitation, Shakeel Ahangar booked for ‘attempted murder'

Wife Shobi Jan complains he sprinkled kerosene oil on her body to burn her to death

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
_______

SRINAGAR, May 7: Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar of Bongam Shopian, who in 2009 alleged that his wife Neelofar Jan and unmarried sister Asiya Jan, had been “gangraped and murdered” by Police and security forces, is likely to be arrested in a serious matter of domestic violence and attempt to murder on Friday. On his second wife Shobi Jan’s written complaint, Police have booked Ahangar in case FIR No: 67/2015 under sections 498-A, 323, 354, 342, 307 of Rabir Penal Code.

According to Shobi Jan’s complaint dated May 5, 2015, filed with Police Station Shopian, Shakeel Ahangar alongwith Manzoor Ahmad Ahangar and Auqib Ahangar sons of Abdul Gani Ahangar and Roomi Jan daughter of Abdul Gani Ahangar did beat her up mercilessly while demanding dowry. They allegedly tried to burn her to death after sprinkling kerosene oil on her body during the night of May 4, 2015.

After a preliminary verification, Police filed FIR No: 67 with charge of attemted murder against Ahangar and the other accused persons. After the spot inspection, Police prepared a site plan and got the complainant’s statement recorded before a judicial magistrate under section 161 and 164 of Criminal Procedure Code. Shobi Jan narrated how Ahangar tried to kill her by sprinkling kerosene oil on her body. Her clothes were seized, sealed and resealed before the Executive Magistrate Ist Class Shopian for FSL examination.

Shakeel Ahangar shot into prominence in May 2009 when his wife Neelofar and sister Asiya were found dead in mysterious circumstances in Rambiara Nallah and he complained that the duo had been kidnapped and subjected to gangrape by Police and security forces before the two young women were “murdered”.

Ahangar’s allegations triggered off a massive street turmoil which left half a dozen civilians dead and hundreds injured across Kashmir. While the Valley observed bandh on calls of Majlis-e-Mashawarat Shopian and separatist leaders for several days, Shopian district headquarters remained shut down for business for about a month. After some investigation by Police and an inquiry by retired judge of J&K High Court, Muzaffar Ahmad Jan, the investigation was assigned to Central Bureau of Investigation.

Even as Ahangar, residents of Shopian, separatist leaders as well as some mainstream politicians maintained that Police and security forces had committed rape and murder of the two women, CBI established in three-month-long investigation that they had been neither raped nor murdered. CBI concluded that Neelofar and Asiya had died by drowning in Rambiara while returning from their orchard in the evening. After exhumation of the bodies, it was established that the unmarried woman’s hymen was intact and she or her sister-in-law had not been subjected to any physical violence.

CBI filed a lengthy charge-sheet against 13 persons, including 11 Shopian-based lawyers and doctors for hatching up a conspiracy and trying to frame innocent Police officials in a false criminal case for ulterior motives. The case is under hearing with a CBI designated court in Srinagar.

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Mother of two cubs, leopard brought down dead from tree top by AK-47 in Budgam

Wildlife officials say predator was man-eater, residents claim leopard groups of Damodhar Karewa, Abhinav Gupta caves have never harmed human beings

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, May 1: On an order issued by the State Wildlife authorities in controversial conditions, Police have shot dead a female leopard, who was mother to two cubs, in Ichhigam village, close to the district headquarters of Budgam in Central Kashmir on Thursday. The common leopard weighing around 100 kg, which was brought down from the top of a 70 ft tall popular tree with AK-47 gunshots, is officially declared as endangered species and stands protected by virtue of its inclusion in the top critical schedules of the State and the Central wildlife law.

Wildlife Warden (Wetlands) Imtiyaz Ahmad Lone claimed that the female leopard was a "man-eater" as it had killed a girl in Beerwah area of upper Budgam sometime back and the big cat had grown as a threat to the life of human population. He said that the men of Police Station Budgam shot dead the leopard, hiding under the foliage of a tall poplar tree, after a team of the Department of Wildlife Protection failed in "repeated attempts" to tranqulise and seize the animal alive.

"I issued the order of killing this leopard after getting reasonably convinced that it was the same predator which had killed a girl at Sutaharan and injured over a dozen men in another attack at Hayyatpora in Beerwah area. I issued the order only after it was under law approved by Chief Wildlife Warden (Deepak Khanna)", Mr Lone told State Times. He said that the animal was lawfully destroyed after burial in a deep pit so as to ensure that nobody takes out it's precious skin or organs for trade, trophy or other purposes. He said even on attacking and injuring a human being, the leopard needs to be declared as "man-eater" and killed as after such an experience it prefers to target humans rather than the animals, like dogs, cows and deer it usually sustains on.

"Over 10,000 people had gathered around the spot. Their hysterical actions frightened the leopard. Our team fired tranquiliser dots but it was too high to be hit. Thereafter we were left with no option than to kill her with a rifle", Mr Lone said.

However two senior officials, who have served in Department of Wildlife Protection insisted on condition of anonymity that the endangered animals cannot be shot dead in this manner. "It's a serious violation of the wildlife law. We can issue order of elimination only after getting substantial evidence of the animal being a man-eater. The attack on a girl has happened long back at Sutaharan which is 25 Km from Ichhigam. Those injured in Hayyatpora, 20 km away, were attacked in self defence by the leopard who was later lynched to death and hanged in an extremely objectionable manner", said a former official. He suggested that the leopards seen in Beerwah were a different group.

Mr Lone maintained that the same animal had attacked men around Beerwah. He, however, admitted that the people of Hayyatpora lynched a leopard in unlawful manner as it had only intruded into a stable and killed 13 sheeps of one Habib Sheikh.

"Two teams from our department were on the look out for the man-eater. We are sure it alone had killed a girl at Sutaharan. We laid cages with bait at several places in Budgam-Beerwah belt but it couldn't be seized alive", he said. He disclosed that Range Officer Wildlife had taken note of the objectionable pictures and written to SHO Beerwah that a criminal case should be registered under law against the people who had killed and put a leopard on exhibition on the day when a civilian died in Police firing in Narbal last fortnight.

Eyewitnesses in Ichhigam and adjoining villages claimed that a big leopard with two cubs had been spotted in movement at several places in last two months. They said the predator group seemed to have taken shelter on western side of Damodhar Karewa outside the fencing wall of Indian Air Force base and Srinagar Airport. Ghulam Mohammad Dar of Khanpora Budgam said that these leopards had not attacked anybody in the whole area.

Mohammad Yousuf Dar of Beerwah town told State Times that residents would routinely spot 6 leopards, sometimes in a group, in the last 4 years. "We see them four to six times a month regularly. Their shelter is in the famous Abhinav Gupta caves atop a hillock over Beerwah. It is less than 500 metres from my home. Once I spotted a leopard just 20 ft from me. I turned my torch on it and it ran away. They eat dogs and sometimes cows or sheep but they never attack humans", Mr Dar said. He said on December 5 last year, one of the 6 leopards was captured in an iron cage by officials but it escaped. Ten days later, it's body was recovered from a stream. "It had perhaps jumped down the slope and died while escaping", he said.

According to Mr Dar, residents of Hayyatpora killed another leopard, without reasonable provocation last fortnight. "If two of the leopards have been killed and a cub has been captured in Goripora, only three of this group are now left at Abhinav Gupta caves. I don't think the leopards spotted around Srinagar Airfield and the one shot dead in Ichhigam do belong to the Beerwah group", he maintained.

Official statistics in Central Kashmir mention that only two leopards died due to "natural death" while as 26 were chased away from April 2014 to March 2015.

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