Former general secretary of Kashmir Bar, Ashraf Bhat arrested in Srinagar

Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, a Kashmiri lawyer who served as the general secretary of the Kashmir chapter of the J&K High Court Bar Association, was arrested by the J&K Police on Tuesday night. Mr. Bhat has become the fourth lawyer of the erstwhile Bar to be arrested in 23 days. Earlier, ex-Bar chief Mian Qayoom, acting Bar chairman Nazir Ahmad Ronga, and Mr. Qayoom’s nephew advocate Mian Muzaffar were arrested by the police and shifted to jails in the Jammu province, which is around 300 km away from Srinagar. Sources said the Bar has decided to “shun the idea of holding any elections.” The 3,000-member erstwhile Bar has been denied permission by the Lieutenant Governor’s government to hold internal elections for the past five years and is accused of “pro-secessionist ideology.” The Bar also remains a non-recognised body, even after dropping a paragraph from its earlier constitution, that read “seeking a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute.” The J&K and Ladakh High Court, earlier this month, recognised a new lawyers’ body in Kashmir, the Kashmir Advocates Association, by exercising powers under Section 58 of the Bar Council, which was extended to J&K after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.