Former Jammu and Kashmir Bar body general secretary held under PSA charges
The former Jammu and Kashmir Bar body general secretary’s family and colleagues said he was arrested on Tuesday night from his house in Srinagar and has been booked under Public Safety Act
Jammu and Kashmir Police have detained a senior lawyer and former general secretary of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, around a week after the association’s ad-hoc chairman was arrested.
Bhat’s family and colleagues said he was arrested on Tuesday night from his house in Srinagar and has been booked under Public Safety Act.
“He has been lodged in Kathua jail. So far we have not been provided with the grounds of his detention under PSA,” said one of his brothers
Under PSA, a person can be detained on the order of district magistrate up to two years without any trial. Police are yet to issue any statement on the development.
Bhat, 70, has been practising law for the past 42 years and has remained Bar general secretary for many stints.
His brother said Bhat was ailing with no one to take care of his wife who was 63 as their only son died last year. “He was not involved in anything. His only crime was being a former general secretary of Bar,” he said.
The arrest came a week after senior lawyer and the adhoc chairman of J&K High Court Bar Association, Nazir Ahmad Ronga, 75, was arrested by police during a night raid on July 11 at his home in Srinagar.
The arrest had come after the Bar decided to go ahead with its election process after amending its controversial constitution despite the government, last month, again imposing the restrictions on the association’s conduct of elections under section 144 criminal procedure code (CrPC). Since 2020, the government has not allowed Bar to conduct its elections citing its constitution which advocated for “peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue”, and also citing its alleged “secessionist ideology”.
The police have arrested three members of the Bar since June 25.
Bar’s former president Mian Abdul Qayoom, 80, was arrested on June 25 in connection with the killing of advocate Babar Qadri who was gunned down outside his house in the Old City in 2020.