Srinagar, July 26: The High Court Bar Association today started hunger strike against the arrest of its president Mian Abdul Qayoom and secretary G.N Shaheen and to invite attention of world community towards “atrocities committed against lawyers and people of Kashmir.”
The Bar said that the arrest of Qayoom and Shaheen was an attempt to stop the lawyers of Kashmir to plead cases of detainees and people facing human rights abuses. The lawyers demand release of Qayoom and Shaheen and threatened to continue their agitation if they are not released.
 Senior advocates Nazir Ahmad Ronga, Ejaz Bedar, Muhammad Amin Bhat, Muhammad Amin Malla, Arshid Andrabi were on hunger strike today. Other junior lawyers joined them.
 Ronga, the former Bar president, said the human rights groups should take note of the grave human rights situation in the State. He said the arrest of Qayoom and Shaheen represents a mindset. He said lawyers in Kashmir over the years have been pleading the cases of detainees and the arrest of Qayoom and Shaheen under PSA is a move to stop the lawyers from pleading the cases and denying the counsel to victims of human rights abuses. Ronga said Bar has always pleaded the cases of the victims of human rights violations, and arrests and intimidations would not deter them to plead the cases.
 He said that the statement of Farooq Abdullah has exposed his mindset.
 The Director of Front Line, a Brussels-based organisation for protection of human rights, has written to K.G Balakrishnan of the National Human Rights Commission asking him to impress upon Indian authorities to release Mian Abdul Qayoom and Shaheen.
 The IDHAE World, the Observatory For Defense Rights and Attacks Against Lawyers, has also condemned the arrest of Mian Abdul Qayoom and expressed grave concern about his safety and security. IDHAE has sought his immediate release. 

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