On September 24, terrorists in Srinagar had shot dead Jammu and Kashmir High Court lawyer Babar Qadri. He had been shot at point-blank range at Hawal in Srinagar, killing him instantly. Now, in a major breakthrough, the SIT set up by the Jammu and Kashmir police to probe Qadri’s assassination case, has revealed that orders to kill the lawyer had come from within the Srinagar central jail, reports Times Now.
The SIT had detained three people for questioning. They purportedly told the police that the order for the lawyer’s assassination came from ‘central jail, Srinagar’. The trio had also revealed the names of people who ordered the assassination. Based on this, the SIT arrested two men from the Srinagar central jail and identified them as Muneer Aziz War alias Qari, son of one Abdul Aziz War of Hatmulla Kupwara and Tawseef Ahmed Shah son of Ghulam Mohammad Shah of Parimpora, Srinagar. These two were in jail for a stone-pelting and murder case.
The special Jammu and Kashmir police team are trying to find out how these individuals passed orders from inside the central jail. The police are also investigating if they received orders from someone outside the jail to carry out Qadri’s assassination.
J and K lawyer shot dead at point-blank range
According to the eye-witness accounts, two assailants, on the pretext of consulting over a legal matter had entered Qadri’s house at around 6 PM on September 24 and opened fire at him. The police said that the lawyer was shot at point-blank range, instantly killing him.
Babar Qadri was one of the truculent voices often seen on various Indian news channels debating issues related to Kashmir.
Presciently enough, Qadri had also posted a tweet 4 days before his assassination, alerting the Jammu and Kashmir police about a possible threat to his life.
Babar Qadri accused J&K Bar Association President and his aides of threat on his life
Hours before Qadri was brutally assassinated, the advocate had carried out a Facebook live session, making shocking revelations about the nexus between the state’s political elites, prominent Bar executives, and separatists.
Qadri also made a scathing attack on J&K High Court Bar Association President Mian Abdul Qayoom, alleging him of doing politics based on coercion on threats in Bar Association. It may be noted that Qadri was suspended by the bar association.
JK Bar Association was an extension of Hurriyat: Babar Qadri
Qadri further laid into Mr Qayoom, alleging that the J&K Bar Association President was operated on the basis of religion by him. He also added that Qayoom had rendered Bar Association as a tool of separatist leader Geelani’s politics, effectively making it an extension of Hurriyat.
The now slain advocate raised questions over Mr Qayoom’s commitment to jihad against the Indian government, accusing him of trying to foment unrest in the Valley at the cost of lives of innocent Kashmiri children, while his own children stayed away from the protest and the conflict.
