Srinagar: Authorities Saturday disallowed High Court Bar Association to organize a seminar on slain human rights lawyer Jalil Andrabi.
Jalil Andrabi, was a prominent Kashmiri human rights lawyer and pro independence political activist associated with the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. Andrabi was allegedly subjected to extrajudicial execution by Indian paramilitary troopers and renegades in March 1996.
On March 8, 1996, Andrabi was detained in Srinagar by Major Avtar Singh, of the 35th Rashtriya Rifles unit of the Indian army. Three weeks later, Andrabi’s body was found floating in the Jhelum River; an autopsy showed that he had been killed days after his arrest. A case is pending adjudication in a Budgam court against Major Avtar Singh who few years back shot himself dead in United States.
High Court Bar Association had sought permission from the authorities to hold a seminar on Saturday in memory of Jalil Andrabi, however, the same was denied.
A communiqué to Bar Association from Principal District and Sessions Judge Srinagar read: “Kindly refer your reference number JKHCB/N/2019 dated 29/3/2019. In this regard I am desired to inform you that the Seminar proposed to be organized on Saturday 30th of March 2019 at 10:30 A.M at Saddar Court premises Mominabad Batamaloo Srinagar cannot be permitted inside the District Court Complex under law.”
Bar Association members didn’t respond to repeated calls from news agency CNS.
Meanwhile, Lawyers Club said that it will hold the seminar in coming days if Bar Association fails to do so.
President Lawyers Club Advocate Babar Qadri said that the silence of Bar Association to the order in the morning itself was an act of surrender. “Bar Association disappointed lawyers’ community by not reacting to the order. By participating in the judicial proceedings after this order was passed Bar Association humiliated the sacrifices made by Advocate Jalil Andrabi,” Qadri told CNS.
