Kashmir lawyers boycott work to protest HC bar association

Lawyers in Kashmir today suspended work to protest the "continuous questioning and harassment" of Kashmir High Court Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom by the NIA in connection with a case related to the funding of separatist activities in the valley.
A general body meeting of the Bar Association also took place at the High Court in which the members expressed "resentment and anguish" over the "continuous summoning" of Qayoom to the NIA office in Delhi, a statement issued by the association stated.
"The strike shall continue till the president of the Bar Association returns from New Delhi," it added.

Qayoom, considered close to pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani who heads the anti-national conglomerate Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, was asked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to appear before it earlier this month.
His name had cropped up during the interrogation of some of those arrested by the probe agency.
The case was registered on issues of raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including through hawala channels, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.