Ex-gen secy of Bar Assn arrested under PSA

Adil Akhzer

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Srinagar, July 18

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested senior advocate and former general secretary of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (HCBA) Mohammad Ashraf Bhat and booked him under Public Safety Act (PSA). Bhat is the fourth lawyer in the valley arrested in less than a month. According to officials, Bhat was arrested from his residence in Srinagar and the family was informed that he has been booked under PSA. An official said that Bhat was being shifted to Kathua jail in Jammu region.

Before Bhat, the police last week had arrested the former president of the J&K HCBA, Nazir Ahmad Ronga, and booked him under the PSA.

Days later, advocate Mian Muzaffar, nephew of advocate Mian Qayoom, was also arrested and booked under PSA.

Mian Abdul Qayoom, also a former president of the Bar association, was arrested last month in connection with murder of advocate Babar Qadri by terrorists in 2020.

The arrest of several lawyers in the valley began after the Election Committee of the HCBA started the process for holding the election. Nazir Ahmad Ronga was the ad-hoc chairman of the Bar Association. The last elections of associations were held in 2018 and were due a year later in September 2019, but couldn’t be held because of the abrogation of J&K’s special status.

In 2020, the Srinagar administration, however, stopped the HCBA from holding its annual elections, claiming that the constitution of the Bar was not in line with the “Constitution of India.”