Jammu, Apr 11: The bandh call forwarded by Jammu Bar Association to defend rape and murder accused and demanding the transfer of Asifa rape and murder case from Crime Branch to Central Bureau of Investigation evoked partial response on Wednesday.
Reports said that though work in all the courts remained paralyzed, however, shops were seen opened in major parts of Jammu city while public and private transport were also seen plying on the roads.
Eyewitnesses said that some fringe elements carrying Indian tricolor enforced shutdown in many areas of Jammu. They were seen riding in auto-mobiles and other vehicles chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogans.
Policemen were seen patrolling on the roads to maintain law and order.
The Jammu Bar Association had called for a Jammu-wide shut down to push for the transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation and other issues, including Rohingya refugee settlements in Jammu. The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, however, did not support the bandh.
Meanwhile, Kirty Bhushan Mahajan, president of the Kathua Bar Association, said it has offered free legal help to the accused in the case. “The accused are invited to name any advocate to represent them in court. They will be given free of cost legal representation at their choice,” Mahajan said. (CNS)
Lawyers, BJP supporters enforcing shutdown damage vehicles, heckled scribe
Jammu, Apr 11: A scribe from Kashmir Wednesday alleged that he was heckled and abused by a group of lawyers and BJP supporters while on way from Jewel to Shalimar in Jammu city.
Lawyers and BJP supporters were protesting near Shalimar Jammu carrying lathis and tricolor in their hands rebuking and demonizing those commuters who plied on the road.
“I was going to civil secretariat in an auto rickshaw when protesting goons stopped the rickshaw and thrashed him unnecessarily. They rebuked him for carrying a Kashmiri in his rickshaw. I was shocked when they say, why a Hindu driver is carrying a Muslim when there is bandh across Jammu. They talked with so much hatred and heckled me,” the scribe Beigh Shameem told CNS.
He alleged that police personnel on duty acted as mute spectators.
The scribe said that protesting lawyers were carrying BJP flags and were hurling stones on vehicles. They targeted government vehicles and smashed their windowpanes.
Pertinently, Jammu Bar Association had called for a shutdown against settlements of Rohingya refugees in Jammu, for transfer of Asifa murder case investigations to the CBI and against the minutes of a government meeting which said that tribals would not be evicted from lands they have occupied over the years. (CNS)
