The Valley is in fume after the recovery of the body of a 12-year-old girl, who had gone missing after leaving for a madrasa in Kashmir’s Budgam district and was allegedly raped before being murdered, as political and religious leaders, expressing anguish and shock, demanded stringent action against the perpetrators behind the barbaric crime.
The gruesome incident, which has convulsed central Kashmir with grief, revulsion and simmering public outrage, surfaced on Sunday morning after the body of the minor was recovered from an open plot situated scarcely 200 metres from her residence in Budgam district, merely hours after her family had alerted the police regarding her disappearance.
According to officials, the girl had left her home on Saturday evening for a nearby Darsgah but failed to return, following which her family lodged a missing persons complaint at the local police station late in the night.
Senior Superintendent of Police Budgam, K K Hari Prasad, said preliminary investigation prima facie suggested the case to be one of rape and murder, while police also constituted a five-member Special Investigation Team to probe the crime.
Police officials said medico-legal formalities had been completed and forensic evidence was being gathered from the scene, while extensive searches were simultaneously being conducted within a one-kilometre radius of the area where the body was recovered.
Tracer dogs were also pressed into service, even as investigators began seizing footage from CCTV cameras installed across adjoining localities in an effort to identify those responsible.
The incident triggered widespread shock across Kashmir, with political parties, religious figures and civil society members voicing horror over the apparent erosion of public safety and the vulnerability of children.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah described the killing as shocking and deeply distressing, while stating that the administration would extend complete support to investigative agencies to ensure exemplary punishment for those found guilty.
Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti termed the incident cold-blooded and profoundly unsettling, saying the allegations of sexual assault had rendered the crime even more horrifying. Kashmir’s chief cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said the incident had shaken the conscience of society and demanded a transparent, time-bound investigation alongside stringent punishment for the culprits behind the heinous act.