National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Delhi convict Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik on 19th May 2022 in a case to allege terrorism and secessionist activities in the Kashmir Valley.
On 10th May 2022, Yasin Malik had pleaded guilty to all charges, including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Yasin Malik, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was arrest by the NIA in 2019 in connection with an overarching terror-funding case that it had open in 2017.
In FIR, the NIA said Kashmiri separatists were receiving funds from Pakistan, including from Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Syed Salahuddin of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, to foment trouble in the Valley through stone-pelting, burning down of schools, and organising strikes and protests.
The NIA investigation report says :
“Yasin Malik has involved in more than 65 criminal cases. Most of them are of murder, attempt to murder, rioting and sedition. Yasin Malik was involve in abducting of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in 1989, and also involved in killing of four Indian Air Force personnel in the early part of 1990s.”
About Yasin Malik
- Malik was born on 3rd April 1966 in Maisuma locality of Srinagar
- In 1980, after witnessing an altercation between the army and taxi drivers, Yasin Malik is said to have become a rebel.
- Yasin Malik form a party called the Tala Party, which form a revolutionary front, printing and distributing political materials and causing disturbances.
- His group was involve in attempting to disrupt the 1983 cricket match with West Indies in the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium, disturbing National Conference gatherings in Srinagar and protesting Maqbool Bhat’s execution.
- Yasin Malik was arrest and detain for four months.
- In the run up to the Legislative Assembly elections in 1987, the Islamic Students League led by Yasin Malik join the Muslim United Front (MUF).
- It did not contest any seats because it did not believe in the constitution.
- JKLF was founded by Amanullah Khan with Maqbool Bhat in Birmingham in June 1976 from the erstwhile UK chapter of the ‘Plebiscite Front’.
- It established its offices in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), and began sabotage activities in Jammu and Kashmir soon afterward and became the top militant group in the Valley.
- Yasin Malik is said to have join the group in the late eighties after returning from Pakistan with arms training.
- In August 1990, Yasin Malik was capture in a wound condition.
- Yasin Malik was imprison until May 1994.
- Hamid Sheikh was also capture in 1992 but release by the Border Security Force to counteract the pro-Pakistan guerrillas.
- After release from prison on bail in May 1994, Yasin Malik declare an indefinite ceasefire of the JKLF.
- In 2009 Yasin Malik married Pakistani artist Mushaal Hussein Mullick.
- They became parents to a girl name Raziyah Sultana in March 2012.
- In March 2020, Yasin Malik and six accomplices were charge under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), the Arms Act 1959 and Ranbir Penal Code for the attack on 40 Indian Air Force personnel in Rawalpora, Srinagar on 25 January 1990.
- During the attack four IAF personnel died.
- On 10 May 2022, Yasin Malik pled guilty of the charges frame against him.
- Yasin Malik chose not to have a lawyer represent him and was appearing for himself.
- The court appoint an amicus curiae to explain the charges to Yasin Malik and make him understand the consequences.
- Yasin Malik confirm to the amicus that he did not want to contest the charges and that he was ready to face whatever was in store for him.
The NIA is pursuing a death sentence for Yasin Malik. His defence team seeks to have his sentence commuted to life in prison.
