SC orders exhumation of youth's body

Srinagar case: Direction follows charges that Mir was killed by police

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered exhumation and fresh post-mortem of the body of a youth killed in Srinagar.

Following allegations that Shabir Ahmad Mir, 26, was killed by a senior police officer, the Jammu and Kashmir government said it was ready to get to the bottom of the matter.

A bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy directed that the entire exercise should be carried out under the supervision of the district and sessions judge.

The father of the deceased had claimed that DSP Yasir Qadri, along with a police team, had on July 10 entered his house and assaulted Shabir’s mother. He alleged that when Shabir intervened, the DSP pumped two bullets into his body. The police, on their part, claimed that no such incident had taken place and Shabir was injured in a rally held two days ago in protest against the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

Appearing for the state government, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted that the probe would have the highest level of transparency and that the authorities would leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of the case. The state government was not treating the case as an adversarial matter and there will be a fair and impartial enquiry into the incident, he said.

The court directed that the process should be completed within three weeks and posted the matter for further consideration on September 5.

The state police submitted a report in a sealed envelope containing the order by the district magistrate for exhumation and autopsy of the body of the victim.

The bench observed that it was a serious matter and such a situation should be handled with a humane approach and extreme sensitivity.

Appearing for the victim’s father, senior advocate Kapil Sibal questioned the alacrity of the police to register a detailed FIR within 20 minutes of the incident. He said the autopsy will determine whether the victim was killed as a result of pellet injuries or gun shots.

The apex court had earlier stayed the contempt proceedings initiated against senior police officers, including the IGP (Kashmir range) for not lodging the FIR against the DSP as per an order by the magisterial court.

Pak to invite India for dialogue

Pakistan plans to invite India for a dialogue on the Kashmir issue, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said on Friday, PTI reports from Islamabad.

“Our foreign secretary would formally be writing to his counterpart in this regard,” Aziz said as he briefed the media about the Pakistan’s envoys’ conference held on August 1-3 to deliberate on major foreign policy challenges of Pakistan and make recommendations. He said the conference spent considerable time on the “grim situation” in Kashmir.

The conference emphasised that Pakistan should continue to extend full diplomatic, political and moral support to the Kashmiri movement for self-determination.