SRINAGAR: A court in Srinagar has sentenced a former militant to life imprisonment for the 2020 murder of a former terror outfit chief inside a mosque, observing that violence at a place of worship cannot be tolerated.
Principal Sessions Judge Srinagar Haq Nawaz Zargar pronounced the judgment on August 6 and sentenced Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Dar, 60, to life imprisonment for the murder of Abdul Gani Dar alias “Abdullah Gazali”, 78, former chief of the erstwhile Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen outfit.
Gazali was found murdered inside the Jamiat-e-Ahli Hadith mosque in the Gawkadal area of Srinagar on February 13, 2020. Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Dar, a resident of Dalgate, Srinagar, was arrested days after the incident.
The court observed that an act of violence inside a place meant for prayer undermines harmony, mutual respect and communal peace, and called for strong judicial condemnation of such acts.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Dar and directed that he be lodged in Udhampur district jail. The period already spent in custody will be set off against the sentence as per law.
It further directed the payment of Rs 7 lakh as compensation to the dependents of the deceased through the Jammu and Kashmir State Legal Services Authority. The compensation is to be paid within three months, taking into account the financial hardship faced by the victim’s family, including the care of a disabled child.
The prosecution had sought the death penalty, arguing that the assault inside the mosque was particularly brutal. According to the prosecution, the accused repeatedly attacked Gazali with fists and kicks, including blows to his head and face, before smashing his head against a cement pillar, resulting in his death.
However, the court held that although the location of the crime was an aggravating circumstance, the case did not fulfil the legal test for being classified as one of the “rarest of rare” cases warranting capital punishment.
The court emphasised that personal grievances and differences have no place inside a house of prayer and said the punishment must uphold public order, communal harmony and respect for the rule of law.
Gazali, a resident of Beerwah in Budgam district, had also been an accused in the 2011 murder of Jamiat-e-Ahli Hadith chief Maulana Showkat Shah, who was killed in a blast outside the same mosque ahead of Friday prayers on April 8, 2011.
