Pulwama attack: SC may take up PIL on probe on Friday

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it may take up on Friday a PIL seeking a direction to the Union government to constitute a commission headed by a retired top court Judge along with the army, intelligence, and local administration, to conduct an enquiry in the Uri and Pulwama attacks.

Advocate J P Dhanda mentioned the petition before a bench presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. He said the petition was filed on Monday but it was yet to appear in Friday's list.

The court said the Friday's list would be finalised by this evening.

The petition filed by advocate Vineet Dhanda also sought an enquiry to find out the lapses at the local level and also the role played by Indian nationals in helping the terrorists from Pakistan in executing the attacks.

He also sought details of action taken against separatists so far.

"The precious lives of the soldiers are at stake and have been lost in the past, therefore, fixing the liability and punishing the persons involved in helping terrorism should be the utmost priority but the central and state governments have miserably failed to take any concrete steps in this regard," it contended.

The PIL sought directions for the freezing of bank accounts of separatists. It contended that the separatists should be banned from contesting polls.

"Banning of political parties belonging to All Parties Hurriyat Conference is must from contesting elections as such anti-India political parties and leaders cannot be allowed to represent the people in the Lok Sabha elections or any state elections," it stated.

The NIA should prosecute separatists against whom concrete evidence was available. It also wanted stern action against stone pelters who obstructed the operations carried out by security forces.

"It is the need of the hour to frame special law and provisions to punish those citizens who post, promote anti-India, anti-armed forces and pro-Pakistan comments on social media," it said.