The Kashmir Bar Association has sought the intervention of the high court for bringing back the mortal remains of Jammu and Kashmir [Images] Liberation Front founder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat from Tihar Jail where he was buried after his execution on February 11, 1984.

In a Public Interest Litigation filed by the KBA before the high court in Srinagar [Images], the association has sought a direction from the court for bringing back Bhat's remains from Tihar Jail where he was hanged and subsequently buried.

Bhat's relatives had been demanding his mortal remains from the authorities, but no action was taken on this demand for nearly 21 years.

• Memories fester in Maqbool Bhat's village

Many Kashmiri separatist leaders including those of the JKLF and Shabir Ahmad Shah, president of Democratic Freedom Party have also demanded the return of Bhat's mortal remains to his family.

Bhat was hanged in Tihar Jail on February 11, 1984, immediately after the JKLF kidnapped and later killed an Indian diplomat Ravinder Mhatre in London [Images] in 1983.

When militancy erupted in Kashmir, the JKLF killed N K Ganjoo the then district judge in Srinagar in December 1989. Ganjoo had passed the death sentence against Bhat in a murder case that came up for hearing in his court. At the time of his murder by the JKLF, Ganjoo had retired from active service.