Kupwara:In a shocking development, the father of a 7-year-old girl whose throat slit body was found outside her residence in Khurhama Zab area of Lolab in north Kashmir's Kupwara district last week, has confessed to the crime, police said on Monday.
Mohammad Iqbal Khatana, 45, confessed to having killed his daughter after she allegedly tried to stop him from taking his own life. Reports quoting an investigating officer said the girl accompanied her father on Wednesday evening after he left home with a knife following a tiff with his wife. As Iqbal rushed to his vehicle to get away, his daughter refused to let him alone and followed him in the vehicle.
As per the report, Iqbal repeatedly asked the girl to go back and even gave her some money to buy candies but she refused to leave. Iqbal, who was already angry, strangled the girl to death and then slit her throat, the report quoted the investigating officer as saying. Khatana then allegedly dumped the body in a nearby firewood shed.
He later went home a few hours and feigned ignorance about his daughter's absence. The girl’s body was soon found in the shed just 30 metres away from her residence on Wednesday night. The incident has led to protests in the area, sending shockwaves across the valley and sparked outrage from various sections of society with many demanding strict action against the accused. Senior Superintendent of Police Kupwara, Yougal Manhas while speaking to reporters here, said that the father was taken into police custody for questioning after the girl's body was found.