On September 24, last year, Advocate Babar Qadri got a call on his cellphone around 6:20 PM. The caller asked Babar to come out of his house as he had to discuss some accident related case. When Babar came out, he was shot multiple times in his head, resulting in his on-spot death, bringing an end to his short-lived career as a lawyer in the Kashmir valley.
Often in controversy for targeting the existential power circles in the Bar council of Srinagar, Babar on September 24, just hours ahead of his assassination had hit out at Mian Qayoom, the president of High Court Bar Council. In his video circulated on Social media, he had accused unnamed lawyers associated with the Bar of planning to kill him. Lawyers associated with the Bar, however, rubbished his claims, saying they had no role in the killing.
Qadri’s career saw a peak in 2010 civilian uprising when he campaigned and legally battled the cases of several juveniles in the year and the subsequent years. Several cases of injustice came to the forefront, because of Babar Qadri. The case of Faizan Ahmed (then 12), who was arrested by Police on the charges of Stone throwing in Kashmir capital- Srinagar, is one such case.
His close friends and associate lawyers say that in his 13-year-long career as a lawyer, Qadri had defended hundreds of cases involving protesters. “Most of the times, Babar did not charge fee from the families of the protesters. He defended their cases with all his heart,” his childhood friend and neighbour, Umar, told The Kashmiriyat.
“In 2010, Babar forcibly took us to the houses of several victims of the killings in 2010. He paid money to several victim families with his own meagre earning,” Umar said.
During the prime time TV debates on Kashmir, where Babar often appeared as a panelist, he posed as an outspoken defender of Human Rights in Kashmir and always sought punishment for the perpetrators of excesses against Kashmiris. In a program hosted by controversial TV Anchor Arnab Goswami in 2017, he shouted ‘Down With India’ and left the show midway when the anchor asked him to say, ‘Down with Pakistan’.
He vocally opposed the August 05 decision. When the erstwhile state was broken into two parts, Babar floated his own group named ‘Justice Party,’ with the idea that there was a need to build bridges between people of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh.
“I don’t think India and Pakistan is against my ideology. However, if I am hurting the vested interests of some people, so be it. I may be enemy to some people but I don’t have enmity with anyone,” he said in one of his last TV interview with a Local channel.