Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association Ex-president Mian Qayoom was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the killing of advocate Babar Qadri, who was gunned down outside his residence in the Old City in 2020.
Qayoom, the main conspirator behind Qadri’s murder, was arrested from Srinagar. The case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jammu last year on the petition moved by the State Investigation Agency (SIA).
In September 2020, Qadri, a lawyer at Srinagar High Court and a vocal critic of the High Court Bar Association, was killed inside his house at Lalbazar in Srinagar. Two unidentified men came to Qadri’s house posing as clients and wanting to discuss a case with him. As Qadri came out, the unidentified men shot him and ran away.
Police had registered a case at Lalbazar Police station for murder under section 302 of IPC, 7/27 of Arms Act and section 13, 16, 18, 20 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Just hours before his death, Qadri had in a Facebook live said he was receiving intimidating messages after he had written against the then bar association president Qayoom over the body’s elections. He feared for his life and had urged the police to register an FIR against a social media user who had accused Qadri of being “protected by agencies”.
One year into his killing, police killed two militants of The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Abbas Sheikh, chief of TRF, and his deputy Saqib Manzoor, were killed in an encounter in Srinagar’s Aloochi Bagh. Police had said Saqib Manzoor was involved in the killing of the advocate. Five accused have since been chargesheeted in the killing of advocate and are lodged in various jails in UT.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been formed to investigate the killing, and police said that The Resistance Front (TRF), believed to be a shadow group of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), was behind the killing of Qadri. Police named a TRF militant, Saqib Manzoor, responsible for the killing. Manzoor was killed in a gunfight in 2021. Police also filed a charge sheet against five persons, including Manzoor in the case
