Srinagar: The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik has petitioned the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to look into “false implication" of many Kashmiri youths by the police in the DSP Mohammed Ayub Pandith lynching case.

It is for the first time the separatist leader has approached a state office. Malik visited the office of SHRC on Monday and met its chairman justice (retired) Bilal Nazki. He presented two petitions before the chairman and asked him to take serious cognisance of the matter, a JKLF spokesman said on Tuesday.

In the first petition, the JKLF chief raised the issue of “dozens of young boys being falsely implicated by police in the killing of Pandit," he said. Malik told the commission that 15 incarcerated boys met him at the Central Jail, Srinagar, where he was lodged recently and narrated their ordeal to him, the spokesman said.

Pandith was stripped and lynched by a mob outside the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar’s Nowhatta area on 22 July, triggering outrage across Kashmir and drawing all-round condemnation. Malik called for a “fresh and unbiased inquiry" into the case. “Use your good offices for saving the lives and careers of these boys so that no injustice is done to them," he told the commission.

In the other petition, the separatist leader cited the case of ailing Syeda Asiya Andrabi (Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief) and her colleague Fahmida Sofi who are languishing in a Jammu jail from a long time, the spokesman said. Malik asked the SHRC to “take note of these gross human rights violations and ensure that the inmates are treated fairly".

“The JKLF chairman also asked the SHRC chairman to look into the plight of thousands of other inmates languishing in various jails and police stations, and re-consider the use of black laws like PSA (Public Safety Act) against common people and peaceful political activists," the spokesman added.

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