Father Among Many Suspects Rounded-Up
SRINAGAR: In a gruesome incident that sent shock waves across Srinagar, two children were slaughtered and their mother gravely injured by assailants inside their home in a Srinagar suburb on Wednesday.
The children and their mother were attacked at dawn when their father Iftikhar Ahmad Lone, a prayer leader (Imam), was away in his mosque.
The assailants slit open the throat of Lone’s wife, Naseema, and two children Hashim (2 years) and daughter Aalya (3 Years) with a sharp edged weapon, the police said.
The trio, lying in a pool of blood, were rushed to hospital when Lone, who originally hails from Gurez area in Bandipore district, returned home from the mosque and raised an alarm, they said.
Iftekhar Ahmad, Imam of Al Noor Masjid, Iqbalabad (Bemina) said when he returned home after prayers he found his wife and children lying in pool of blood with their slit throats.
He raised the alarm, attracting the attention of locals who reached the spot and evacuated the trio to the SMHS hospital, police said.
The doctors there declared Hashim and Aalya as brought dead while describing the condition of Naseema as critical.
She has been operated upon and her condition is stable now, Dr N A Chaudary, Medical Superintendent of the SMHS hospital said in the afternoon.
However, Chaudary said, she was not in a condition to speak right now. We are continuously monitoring her situation, he added.
Earlier a pall of gloom fell on the Iqbalabad locality as the new spread. Scores of people gathered near clerics residence and expressed their anger and grief over the incident.
Meanwhile, police reached their and immediately took the cleric, a resident of Achura Gurez, into custody for questioning along with some other suspects.
The forensic team collected all the samples and we are waiting for the report, Inspector General of Police, Abdul Gani Mir said.
IGP said that police was questioning the cleric and hopefully they would crack the case very soon.
We are working on clues, he said, adding, Preliminary investigations into the case pinpoints to involvement of cleric, he said.
Police has registered a case vide FIR number 68/2013 under section 302, 307 and 450 RPC.
Bodies of both the children have been shifted to Childrens hospital for post-mortem.
