Police on Wednesday searched the houses of three senior lawyers of Kashmir, including Mian Qom, former Principal Advocate of Kashmir Bar Association. The search has been done in connection with the murder of human rights advocate Babar Qadri that took place two years ago. The police did not give any information about the recovery of any kind of material during the search.
Apart from Mian Qom, separate teams of police started searching together in the houses of Advocate Manzoor Dar and Advocate Muzaffar Dar this morning. Human rights advocate Babar Qadri was quite vocal on the Kashmir issue. He used to blame Pakistan and India equally for the devastation of Kashmir, saying that Hurriyat Conference and Kashmir Bar Association have also done politics on the blood of Kashmiris. Instead of restoring peace in Kashmir, they used to spread unrest in Kashmir. He also challenged Mian Qom’s supremacy in the Kashmir Bar Association several times. He was also not afraid to criticize the hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Advocate Babar Qadri had informed the Jammu and Kashmir Police a few days before his assassination that some people were running a propaganda campaign against him by pretending to be an agent of Indian security agencies in Kashmir. He is suspected of murder.
Advocate Babar Qadri was shot dead by two terrorists in his house on 24 September 2022. Police had arrested three people in this connection and out of these two accused were lodged in Srinagar jail itself. He is said to have issued instructions to terrorists operating in Srinagar to kill Babar Qadri from jail.
After the assassination of Advocate Babar Qadri, fingers were also pointed towards Mian Qom, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and many other separatist leaders. An official associated with the investigation of the case said that on the day Babar Qadri was murdered, he had made several scathing remarks against Mian Qom on the internet media.
Meanwhile, a senior police official said that Advocate Mian Qom has been controversial since the beginning. He belongs to the radical separatist ideology. Before the formation of Hurriyat Conference, Mian Qom had formed a separatist organization called Tehrike Hurriyat Kashmir (THK) in Kashmir. This included about 10 separatist organizations Jamaat Islami, JKLF, Muslim Conference, Islamic Students League, Mahaz-e-Azadi, Muslim Khawateen Markaz, Kashmir Bar Association, Ittehadul Muslimeen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat and Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadith.
Mian Qom has also been a member of Jamaate-e-Islami. It is said that he was also associated with terrorist organization like Hizbul Mujahideen. He was also instrumental in the formation of Hurriyat Conference. NAIA has also questioned him in terror funding. Mian Qom, a supporter of Kashmir Banega Pakistan, was detained on 5 August 2019. He was released conditionally by the court in July 2020. A close relative of his is also a judge in the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Courts.