Srinagar: Kashmir High Court Bar Association on Monday demanded supervision of “independent judicial officer” into investigation of FIR filed by the police in connection the killing of a 20-year-old youth in Kupwara.
The youth Asif Iqbal, a driver by profession, was killed by the Army at Thandipora Kupwara, on Saturday at 11:00 p.m. immediately after he left his home, to help somebody in needed of his help, a spokesman of the lawyers’ said. It termed the killing as “inhuman and barbaric.”
Asif, who is survived by two sisters and as many brother besides his parents, was the only bread-earner of the family and had left his studies, for providing sustenance and support to them.
“In his death, the family has suffered irreparable loss, which cannot be compensated by any method.”
The lawyers’ body asked the international community to take notice of the “cold blooded murder” and put pressure on India to stop the genocide of Kashmiri people and give them their right of self-determination without any further bloodshed.
The Bar Association also maintains that even though an FIR has been registered by the police against the Army and a magisterial enquiry has been ordered in the matter but unless the investigation of the case and the magisterial enquiry was supervised by an independent judicial officer of the rank of Sessions Judge, there was no possibility of bringing the culprits to book, “because in the past also such kind of magisterial enquiries and or registration of FIRs have yielded no results.”
The Bar Association also denounces the issuing of notice by the Enforcement Directorate to Syed Ali Shah Geelani and terms the same, as a revengeful and a malafide act, in as much as, the timing of the notice itself shows that the income tax raid had allegedly taken place in the year 2002 and even though, as per Geelani, nothing was recovered from his residence, yet, it is after a period of 15 years that the Enforcement Directorate has started adjudication proceedings in the matter and has asked Geelani, who is ailing and was not in a position to move out, to appear before the Enforcement Directorate, in the severe and bitter cold.
