Lawyers strike in IHK over CBI cover-up

SRINAGAR (AFP) - Lawyers in Kashmir went on a one-day strike Wednesday to protest against an alleged cover up by police over the deaths of two women that has sparked a series of protests. Police initially said a 17-year-old girl and her 22-year-old sister-in-law found dead on May 20 had drowned but later agreed they might have been raped and murdered, as suspected by locals. In September, Indias federal Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) took over the case and, in a report for Kashmirs high court made public on December 14, also concluded that the two had drowned. The CBI sought action against six doctors, five lawyers and two other people for fabricating evidence to support the theory that the women had been raped and murdered. We will fight a legal battle to prove that the CBI report is a farce and nothing else, says Mian Qayoom, the leader of the lawyers, who believe the report is a cover up for security forces. Todays strike is to register our protest at the report and also to show solidarity with our framed colleagues, said Qayoom, as the strike paralysed work in courts across the Held Valley. The families of the victims have also rejected the report. The Kashmiri leaders, leading a political struggle against Indian rule in the region, have called for an international probe into the deaths. Mass rallies and outbreaks of violence shook the region in May after the bodies were found in southern Shopian town. The CBI acquitted four police officers arrested earlier for destroying evidence. A struggle against New Delhis rule has raged for two decades in Occupied Kashmir, claiming more than 47,000 lives.

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