KL Report
SRINAGAR
After a long gap of 15 years, Jammu Kashmir Police produced charge sheet against seven persons including two dead for their alleged involvement in the car bomb blast case of August 2000.
Pertinently, at least 13 people, including a photo- journalist, two Armymen and a civilian, were killed in a powerful bomb blast in near Police Station Kothbagh Srinagar on August 2000.
Days after the blast, police claimed that it arrested 7 militants near Babademb area when they were busy in a meeting. Police Station Khanyar in its FIR vide number 102/2000 under section 7/25 of arms act and 4/5 of explosive substance act had claimed that huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from these 7 persons, a charge that was termed baseless by the accused.
The charge sheet was presented before the court of 4th Additional Judge Shazia Tabasum Srinagar after establishing the offences against the accused persons namely Haji Ali Muhammad Bhat a resident of Hyderpora, Zubir Ahmed Reshi of Tengpora Nesbal, Farooq Ahmed Dar of Dana Mazar Safakadal, Abdul Hamid Bhat (deceased), Nazir Ahmed Bhat, Muhammad Iqbal Chechi, and Mir Hussain (deceased) all the residents of Ajas Bandipora.
The accused had already been acquitted by TADA court Srinagar in 2005 and they were bailed out soon after the verdict of the TADA court.
Counsel for the accused advocate Mir Urfi told CNS that it is irony that police took more than 15 years to produce charge sheet against the persons who were wrongfully detained by the police. Talking to CNS, one of the accused claimed they were not arrested from Babademb area but ‘were picked up by police from our respective residential houses.’
“We all were shocked after going through the FIR prepared by the police claiming that we were holding a meeting to chalk out a plan to attack security establishments and were arrested from the Babademb area. It was all fabricated. Soon after our arrest we all were sent to Srinagar Central Jail, from where we were taken to Kot Balwal jail and finally shifted to Jodhpor Jail Rajhstan where we spent three horrible years in dark and narrow cells,” he said.
He added that all the persons were granted bail after TADA court Srinagar acquitted them in 2005. “After six months of our release from the jail, unidentified gunmen gunned down two accused namely Mir Hussain and Abdul Hamid Bhat in mysterious circumstances,” he informed adding that the charge sheet filed by the police is a fabricated one as the accused were never affiliated with any militant organization,” he said.
