Murder of human rights lawyer leads to calls for inquiry

Tony Girling, the Law Society's new president, and Ross Harper, the president of the International Bar Association, have written to the Indian prime minister calling for an inquiry into the death of Indian lawyer Jalil Andrabi.

The move, which came at the prompting of Indian lawyers, came after the body of Andrabi, who was challenging human-rights violations in the states of Jammu and Kashmir through the Indian High Court, was found bound in the Jhelum River, Srinigar, on 27 March this year. Three weeks earlier locals said they saw him abducted by members of paramilitary groups including the Rashtriya Rifles. Amnesty International claims the groups are backed by state authorities, but this is denied.

Prior to his death, Andrabi had publicly condemned human-rights violations at a meeting of human-rights activists in New Dehli.

Both the IBA and the Law Society wrote to the Indian Government calling for a public investigation shortly after Andrabi's body was found. They received no response, so both have written again calling for an independent inquiry.