PDP worker’s wife stabbed to death in Hajin

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 9

The wife of a PDP worker was allegedly stabbed to death by unidentified armed men at her house in north Kashmir’s volatile town of Hajin. While a senior police officer said that an initial probe hinted it was a “normal crime incident”, he said the police were probing if there was any terror angle to it.

She has been identified as Shakeela Bano (45), wife of PDP worker Abdul Majeed Dar and a resident of Baghat Mohalla Shahgund in Hajin.

The police said some persons entered Dar’s house on Sunday evening and attacked Shakeela Bano with knives.

“Shakeela received multiple stab injuries and was taken to hospital. She was later shifted to SKIMS College, Bemina, where she succumbed,” a police spokesman said.

Sheikh Zulfikar Azad, Senior Superintendent of Police, Bandipore, said an initial probe had found that the assailants had come for robbery.

“The husband of the deceased told us that the attackers had come inside the house with intent to loot. He also said that an assailant was carrying a golden-coloured pistol. When he resisted the attack, one of the assailants stabbed his wife,” Azad said.

“I was about to offer prayers at my house when someone kept a pistol at my back and asked me why I was associated with a political party. I told him I was only helping people. He asked for the key of my locker and took away jewellery and Rs 3 lakh. When I noticed him stealing, I thought he is not a militant but a bandit. I pounced on him and tried to stop him from fleeing. At that point he stabbed my wife,” Dar said. The police have registered a case.