Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar

The double rape and murder case that has put Kashmir on the edge took a new turn on Thursday when two “witnesses” told a court that they had heard cries for help from inside a security vehicle the day the two women disappeared.

The vehicle, they said, had been parked near a bridge on the Rambiyar stream from where the bodies were recovered the next day.

The two witnesses voluntarily approached the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the case and were taken to the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shopian, to record their statement.

The eyewitnesses—Ghulam Mohideen and Abdul Rasheed Pampori—claimed they were on their way home that evening when they saw a security vehicle and heard women’s cries for help.