Srinagar: In a landmark judgment that closed a legal battle spanning nearly four decades, a Srinagar court has awarded compensation to the family of a young mechanic killed in a 1985 bomb blast at the Srinagar Exhibition Ground.
On Wednesday, the Court of 2nd Additional District Judge, Srinagar, presided over by Judge Swati Gupta, directed the Jammu and Kashmir Government to pay ₹3.24 lakh with 8% annual interest to the family of Avis Ahmed Shah, a 22-year-old mechanic who lost his life in the explosion at the “Radha Theatre” stall during the state-organized exhibition on October 13, 1985.
Avis, who succumbed to injuries a day later at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), was the breadwinner for his widowed mother and siblings. His father, Mohammad Yousuf Shah, had filed the suit in 1986 seeking ₹3.84 lakh in compensation, arguing that negligence by police and government departments led to the tragedy. Yousuf himself passed away in 1998, leaving his widow and children to pursue the case.
For years, the family knocked on the doors of different government departments, but no relief came. Witnesses told the court that despite ticketed entry, frisking, and heavy police deployment, explosives found their way inside the exhibition, reflecting what they described as “gross negligence.”
The State, in its defence, denied liability, arguing the blast was beyond its control and the result of militancy. Investigations at the time linked the attack to the militant outfit “Holy War Fighters.” But the court rejected this line of reasoning, holding the government accountable for failing to ensure security at a public event it organized and profited from.
“The State cannot shirk its constitutional obligation to protect the lives of citizens,” Judge Gupta observed, adding that the tragedy was a direct result of lapses in security. The court emphasized that compensation was not just restitution but recognition of the State’s duty under Article 21 of the Constitution – the right to life.
The order also noted the “inordinate delay” in delivering justice, nearly 40 years after the blast, and imposed interest on the compensation to account for the prolonged hardship suffered by the family.
For Mst Khatija, the octogenarian widow of Yousuf Shah and mother of Avis, the judgment is bittersweet. “No amount of money can bring my son back,” she told neighbors after the verdict, “but at least the truth that the government failed us is now written in law.”
Legal experts say the ruling could set a precedent for other long-pending cases where victims of terrorism and negligence have sought compensation from the State.
As Kashmir continues to grapple with the scars of conflict, the Shah family’s 40-year wait for justice stands as both a reminder of institutional delays and a rare moment of closure in a story that began with the loss of a young man’s life on a fateful October evening in 1985.