27/07/2025
Another Innocent Assaulted, Another Family Devastated: J&K Slipping into a Crisis of Law and Conscience
27/07/2025 Jammu
With deep anguish and grave concern, Advocate Sayed Majid Shah, General Secretary (Youth), Peer Panchal , JKPDP, condemns in the strongest possible terms the custodial assault of Mohammad Arif, son of Mohammad Bashir from Gundi village, Tehsil Khawas, who was brutally beaten by personnel at Khawas Police Post earlier today.
The victim, a young civilian with no FIR or criminal background, suffered grievous injuries including broken teeth and a severely damaged mouth. It is appalling that instead of accepting responsibility, the concerned police officials have issued an outrageous claim that Arif “broke his own teeth”—a claim both baseless and insulting to the intelligence of the people and the dignity of the victim.
Advocate Sayed Majid Shah, after speaking with the victim’s family and local residents, affirms that this is not an isolated case, but part of a deepening pattern of police excesses and unchecked power being exercised against common citizens across Jammu & Kashmir.
This shocking incident follows closely on the heels of the custodial killing of Parvez, a resident of Phallian Mandal, who was gunned down in a suspected fake encounter by the police. Despite widespread outrage and the family’s repeated pleas, no FIR has been registered and no accountability initiated—raising serious questions about the sanctity of law and due process in the region.
Advocate Sayed Majid Shah further expressed concern that such repeated incidents—from illegal detentions to fake encounters to custodial torture—are creating an environment of fear and hopelessness, particularly among the youth of Peer Panchal and other marginalized belts.
While highlighting the recent cases of Unlawful attachment of private properties under UAPA, even when the legal owners—often elderly parents or siblings—have no connection with the accused or the alleged offence and Routine harassment of civilians, especially youth and students, under the guise of preventive policing . Adv Sayed Majid Shah demanded immediate actions by registration of FIRs and suspension of all police officials involved in both the Arif and Parvez incidents ; Constitution of a High-Level Judicial Inquiry, headed by a sitting or retired High Court judge, to probe both incidents transparently and time-bound and an end to the misuse of UAPA and preventive detention laws, which are being used arbitrarily against civilians without evidence or accountability.
“This is not just a law-and-order failure—it is a moral collapse of state responsibility. When the protectors of law become its violators, democracy bleeds,” said Advocate Sayed Majid Shah.
He reiterated that JKPDP remains committed to justice, transparency, and the constitutional rights of every citizen, and that such high-handedness must be resisted through legal, democratic, and civil means.
He urged civil society, media, human rights groups, and the wider political fraternity to not remain silent spectators. Silence now would mean complicity. The time to act is now—before more lives are broken, more homes destroyed, and more voices silenced. J&K Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba M***i fans
