Kupwara Murder: More Details Emerge

SRINAGAR: Days after the throat slit body of an eight year old girl was found in a village in Lolab area of Kupwara district, police on Monday said that the father of the minor committed the heinous crime and has been arrested.

Addressing a press conference, SSP Kupwara said that while carrying out the investigation and corroborating the evidences they zeroed in on the family and the father of the girl, was the prime suspect.

SSP Kupwara Yougal Manhas, said that M Iqbal Katana, who is the father of the minor, has emerged as the prime suspect in the case.

Iqbal Khatana, a driver by profession as per police after cross questioning confessed to the crime and said that he killed his daughter in a fit of rage after having an argument with his wife.

SSP further said on March 29 Iqbal had  an argument with his wife, who even slapped him. Iqbal  left his home in anger and took a knife along with him. He left home stating that he is going to fix his car tyre.’

As per police, Iqbal left home to vent out his anger and end his life. He was followed by his minor daughter.

“Iqbal gave her 10 rupees but she still kept following him and sat in the car with him. As the streets were deserted because of iftaar time, Iqbal parked his car at an isolated place and in a fit of rage choked his daughters throat first. Soon he realized about the gravity of the situation and thought of concealing the crime,’ SSP Kupwara said.

To mislead police and frame someone else for the crime he slit the throat of the minor and dumped her body near a shed.

“He went back to his home and on being asked about the girl’s whereabouts he feigned ignorance and filed a missing report in a police station,” SSP said.

In the mean time Iqbal’s wife accompanied by the villagers found the body dumped near shed and soon mosques started reverberating with announcements of the same.

SSP Kupwara further stated that father of the minor is the only accused who so far has emerged out in this case and the weapon used to commit crime has also been recovered. M Iqbal Khatana is under police custody and we will proceed further legally.

Earlier, the family had said that their daughter ventured out from her home to go to a shop to buy something.

However, till late in the evening, she couldn’t reach home, following which the family members launched widespread searches to find her , and later her throat slit body was found by her mother near a shed at their home.