Srinagar, Sep 9 - The Jammu and Kashmir government Wednesday formally approached the central government for entrusting the probe into the rape and murder of two women in Shopian district to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

'The state government has formally approached the secretary, department of personnel and training, government of India, New Delhi, along with copies of the FIR proforma and other related documents of the Shopian case for entrusting it to the CBI for holding investigation,' said an official press release issued here.

The bodies of Nilofar, 22, and her sister-in-law Asiya, 17, were found by the side of a local stream near Shopian town May 30. The incident had triggered Valley-wide protests.

Four police officers, including the then district police chief of Shopian, his deputy, an inspector and a sub-inspector of police, were suspended and later arrested for negligence of duty and destruction of evidence in this case.

Life in Shopian was paralysed Wednesday due to a strike called by the Shopian action committee after the body of an activist, who was fighting for justice in the rape and murder of Nilofar and Asiya, was recovered from an orchard in the town Tuesday.