**Four police officers have been arrested in connection with the alleged rape and murders of two women in Indian-administered Kashmir.**The policemen, including a former chief officer of a district, had been earlier suspended in connection with the deaths in Shopian district.
The bodies of the two women were discovered in a canal in Shopian district on 30 May.
Shopian has seen 47 days of protests and strikes over the case.
The government initially maintained that they had died in an accident and that they had not been raped or killed.
But later the police registered a case of both rape and murder.
On Wednesday, the high court in Kashmir said it would “go to the bottom of this matter and bring the culprits to justice”.
The former district police chief of Shopian, Javed Iqbal and three other officers have now been held on orders of the high court, says the BBC’s Altaf Hussain in Kashmir.
The court also ordered the collection of DNA samples from the four police officers who were earlier suspended for destroying evidence pertaining to the case.
The judge said their DNA profile would be matched with that of the deceased women.
A judicial inquiry into the double murders - conducted by retired judge Justice Muzaffar Jan last week said the police were involved.
Protests have raged throughout the Kashmir Valley since 30 May and shops and businesses have remained shut in Shopian since then.