3 min readSrinagarUpdated: Jul 12, 2024 10:16 AM IST
Ronga, who has been the president of the High Court Bar Association several times, has been acting as its chairman since 2020, when the government prevented the association from conducting its annual elections. (X/@umairronga)
The Jammu and Kashmir police have detained the chairman of the J&K High Court Bar Association Nazir Ahmad Ronga following a midnight visit to his home in Srinagar.
The family claims they were informed in the morning that advocate Ronga has been booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Ronga’s son Umair Ronga, also an advocate at the Srinagar High Court, first posted online, “My father, advocate N A Ronga, has just been arrested in a deeply disturbing turn of events. At 1.10 am, a contingent of J&K Police arrived at our home without any arrest warrant, merely stating, ‘It’s an order from above (uper se order hai)’. We are left in a state of shock and profound distress. We can only hope this is not another instance of the PSA being misused to intimidate the members of the Bar Association.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Umair said, “This morning, when he was being taken for a medical check-up, police told us he has been booked under the PSA. We were told that he would be lodged in a jail in Jammu.”
The PSA allows the government to detain a person without trial for up to one year.
Umair said the family has not been informed about the grounds of detention so far. The J&K police did not comment on the detention.
Ronga, who has been the president of the High Court Bar Association several times, has been acting as its chairman since 2020, when the government prevented the association from conducting its annual elections. The last elections were conducted in 2018 and were due in September 2019, but couldn’t be held because of abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and subsequent curfew.
When it announced its elections in 2020, the government said the Bar’s constitution, which termed Kashmir as a disputed region, was not in consonance with the Constitution of India.
Ronga’s arrest came days after the Election Committee of the Bar Association again set the ball rolling for its elections. But when the committee was tasked to complete the elections before July 31, the government again barred it from conducting the polls.
In a recent letter, the Bar, which has around 3,000 members, indicated that it had removed the contentious paragraph from its constitution.
Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter.
Expertise and Experience
Two Decades of Frontline Reporting: Bashaarat has spent 20 years documenting the evolution of Kashmir, from high-intensity conflict and political shifts to socio-economic development.
Award-Winning Investigative Journalism: He is a recipient of the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award (2012). This honor was bestowed for his reporting on the Pathribal fake encounter, a series of stories that highlighted his ability to handle sensitive human rights and security issues with investigative rigor.
Specialized Beats: His authoritative coverage spans:
Political Transitions: Tracking the shift from statehood to Union Territory, electoral dynamics, and the pulse of local governance.
Security & Conflict: Providing nuanced reporting on counter-insurgency, civil liberties, and the impact of the conflict on the civilian population.
Development: Documenting the infrastructure, healthcare, and educational landscape within the Valley.
Academic Background: He holds a Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University of Kashmir, providing him with a localized academic and professional foundation that is rare in regional reporting. ... Read More
