Srinagar, May 9: The High Court here deferred till June 6 the hearing of Public Interest Litigation by JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik on 117 killings of last year’s unrest. Division Bench of Chief Justice FM Ibrahim Kalifulla and Justice Muhammad Yaqoob Mir deferred the case after the Central Government counsel sought time for filing of objections.
Assistant Solicitor General (ASG), representing the Union of India, sought four weeks from the court to file the objections, which he was granted.
“Since the killings have taken place in different parts of Kashmir, we have to gather the information from different units of security forces, accused of the killings, established at different parts of the Valley,” the ASG submitted.
However, the state Government was ready to file the objections. On January 14, 2011, Malik filed a PIL through senior counsel Zaffar Shah in the High Court seeking directions to the Government for registering FIR into unregistered cases out of 117 killings and monitoring of the investigation in cases where FIR has been filed.
Malik also sought constitution of a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to probe into the killings allegedly by forces during the past year’s summer unrest.
The petitioner has qualified these deaths as “murder within the meaning of law” and sought punishment against the involved persons. Malik has sought declaration from the court that if the armed personnel are found guilty of any act of omission and commission attracting penal provisions, they would not be entitled to claim immunity under Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 May 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
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