Srinagar, July 16 - Life in Shopian town in south Kashmir, where two women were found raped and murdered May 30, returned to normal after the 48-day-old agitation was called off Thursday morning.

The strike, which had led to a complete shutdown in the town, was called off following an appeal to the town's residents by the state high court's Chief Justice Barin Ghosh so that the special investigation team (SIT) probing the rape and murder of two young women could complete its probe speedily.

'We assure them that as the people of the state are behind them, so is this court and it would be our collective effort to ultimately solve the crime and appropriately deal with the perpetrator(s) of the heinous crime of rape followed by murder,' the chief justice said in his order Wednesday when a division bench of the high court comprising him and Justice Muhammad Yaqoob Mir ordered the arrest of four local police officers suspended in wake of the crime, and their DNA profiling and narco-analysis.