J&K police detains High Court Bar Association chairman during midnight raid

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir police detained Nazir Ahmad Ronga, chairman of the J&K High Court Bar Association, during a midnight raid at his Srinagar residence on Thursday.

His family was informed in the morning that Ronga had been booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

“My father, Adv. N.A. Ronga, the Chairman of the J&K High Court Bar Association, has just been arrested in a deeply disturbing turn of events. At 1:10 am, a contingent of J&K Police arrived at our home without any arrest warrant, merely stating, ‘It’s an order from above (uper se order hai)’,” his son Umair Ronga posted on X.

“We are left in a state of shock and profound distress. We can only hope this is not another instance of the PSA being misused to intimidate the members of the Bar Association,” he said.

Omair added that the family has not been informed about the grounds for detention. The J&K police did not comment on the detention.

Last week, the Bar had amended its constitution to remove a paragraph calling for “working towards a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute.”

This revision followed a 2020 directive from the District Magistrate questioning the alignment of the Bar's objectives with the Constitution of India, which asserts Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of the country.

The J&K administration has declined permission for the Bar to conduct its elections for the past five years on various grounds. Ronga, who has been the president of the Bar several times, has acted as its chairman since 2020 when the government prevented the association from holding its annual elections.

Last month the State Investigation Agency (SIA) of J&K police arrested former president of the Bar, Mian Abdul Qayoom, in Srinagar in connection with the murder of advocate Babar Qadri in 2020. Qayoom was the president of the Bar for several terms from 1990’s till 2019.