Question mark on the domicile of rival families, authorities counting numbers

Harya Chak Kingpin Arrested

SUMIT SHARMA

JAMMU: While the Kathua Police today claimed to have arrested the kingpin of Harya Chack sacrilege, it has also surfaced that the rival families may not have been the bona fide residents of Kathua village bordering Punjab.
The Maskeen and Sharief households -embroiled in sacrilege controversy -are among several families who divide their time between Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir and Pathankote district of Punjab. Since people on the both sides follow the same culture, language, economic practices and depend on resources of each other's side the line defining the domicile identity between is thin. Spotting of some Punjab based people with country-made guns in Harya Chak village at behest of one of the rival families which plotted sacrilege against other has raised questions about domicile antecedents of many local families. The arrest of sacrilege plot's kingpin Showkat alias Shoku from Punjab and scanning of his mobile Call Detail Records (CDR) also points to large involvement of people who were not the local villagers.
An official in Kathua told The News Now that many of these families -including Maskeen's and Sharief's -settled in Harya Chak some 15 to 20 years ago. They have sets of relatives on the Punjab side as well and the level of social and economic interaction between them is quite high. "It is most likely that all residents of Harya Chak may not be actually the bona fide residents but believing that residents are not state subjects is also not true", said the official who further mentioned, "we are counting to tally with records".
Meanwhile, the Kathua police today secured the arrest of the main accused who had gone underground after hatching the conspiracy. "Identified as Shokat Shrief alias Shoku who was main culprit in the sacrilege act and was absconding has been arrested today", said SSP Kathua Pawan Parihar.
He was arrested from Punjab from the residence of his relatives. Police got the clue of his hiding place on the disclosure of his father namely Mohd Sharif of Sunjwan village, Rajbagh. Sharief was one of the four persons who were arrested by the police. The other three were: Mohammad Ali son of Yusuf, Sultsan son of Ali Mohammad and Mohammad Iqbal son of Mohammad Ibraham.
The Call Detail Report (CDR) of the Shoku helped police to crack the entire conspiracy which gave the shape of sacrilege act resulting communal tension. Sources said that Shoku, after slaughtering calf, made phone calls to one Puppy and Rakesh Kumar identifying himself as a servant of Maskeen informing them of 'cow slaughter'. It was after police investigation which revealed that Maskeen had no servant and after going through the CDR police came to know that identification and residence of the accused person following which his family members were rounded up .
It was during interrogation police came to know the family's planning to fix the Maskeen Gujjar, their arch rival, at the hands of public and police.All of them have been booked in case FIR No 5/2017 u/s 295 A,298 A/120 B of RPC.
The internet service remained snapped with section 144 CrPC in force, the other day, in the entire district. No untoward incident has been reported, indicating restoration of normalcy.
Pertinently, nine persons including five cops received injuries in clashes between the people belonging to two communities over sacrilegious in the village Haria Chak, Mareen in district Kathua, here today.
However, Kathua police resolved the issue and arrested four persons for hatching criminal conspiracy and vitiating the peaceful atmosphere of the district Kathua. The alleged accused persons firstly beheaded the cow calf and later put its head at the court yard of his rival. Their act ultimately triggered protest and clash between two communities, resulting injuries to nine persons, besides damage to the property worth lakhs.