J-K SHRC orders reinvestigation into assault on scribe

17 October, 2008 04:37:00

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Srinagar October 16: The Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Thursday ordered re-investigation into the attack on a scribe-cum-human rights activist in Srinagar last year, noting that assault on a journalist was "contempt of the Constitution."

The commission also recommended a compensation of Rs 70,000 for victim Naseer Ahmad Khora of Irfanabad tehsil in Doda district. He was allegedly blind-folded, tortured and taken to an unknown destination by unidentified persons on May five, 2007, before being thrown into the Dal Lake half-dead. Passing a judgement on Khora's complaint, acting SHRC Chairman Habibullah Bhat said inspector general of police, SHRC, Srinagar would reinvestigate the case. "The report of Ram Munshi Bagh police station dated May six 2008 was considered. The police station concerned has closed the case as untraced," Bhat said adding the report submitted to SHRC by the police station had confirmed the allegations of the petitioner for its intervention. "The petitioner is a human rights activist and a journalist working in Doda district. He appears to have been forcibly blind-folded and lifted in a jeep and was subsequently released after receiving brutalities from untraced criminals," the acting chairperson said. An FIR was registered but investigations did not yield any result. Observing that the complainant was hospitalised after the trauma, Bhat said, "The commission, therefore, should come to the rescue of the petitioner, whose human rights violations are not exceptionally grave, but pose a threat to the freedom of press and expression." "Attacking, assaulting and brutalising a journalist or a human rights activist is contempt of the Constitution and insult to the democracy. Journalism is a vital organ of human cause and its services have rich historical perspective." The recommendation for a compensation of Rs 70,000 had been submitted to the government through chief secretary. The journalist had been assaulted during a human rights delegates’ conference, he was attending at a hotel in Sonawar locality of Srinagar.