The Kashmir Pulse

NEW DELHI — The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to separatist leader Yasin Malik following an appeal by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), demanding that he be awarded the death penalty.

On May 26, the NIA approached the Delhi High Court seeking the death penalty for Malik, asserting that not giving capital punishment to such a "dreaded terrorist" will result in a miscarriage of justice.

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief was awarded a life term by a trial court in a militant funding case last year.

“Considering the record and circumstances that the respondent pleaded guilty interalia to charge under 121 IPC that stipulates among others punishment of death; the delay in refiling the appeal is condoned... We issue notice to Yasin Malik in both the application and the appeal,” the bench said.

SRINAGAR — A court in Jammu on Wednesday issued a production warrant against Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Muhammad Yasin Malik, directing the Tihar jail authorities to produce him physically before it on the next date of hearing in the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case.

Talking to the news agency KNO, advocate Monika Kohli, CBI counsel in the case, said the TADA court has issued a production warrant against Malik and directed the Tihar jail authorities to produce him before it on the next date of the hearing. “The next date of hearing is scheduled on October 20,” she said.

Malik had requested the court to allow him to appear physically to cross-examine witnesses in the case.

The CBI counsel said lawyers of other accused in the case cross-examined Rubaiya Sayeed today.

On July 15, Rubaiya identified Yasin Malik, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment in another case and is currently lodged in Tihar jail, as his abductor in 1989.

PDP chief and former CM Mehbooba Mufti had defended the identification of Yasin Malik by her sister, saying she did her duty as per the law.

Rubaiya was kidnapped on December 8, 1989, and was set free five days later in exchange for the release of five militants of JKLF.

JAMMU — A court in Jammu on Tuesday issued a bailable warrant against Rubaiya Sayeed after she did not appear for her cross-examination by JKLF chief Muhammad Yasin Malik, whom she had identified as her abductor during the last hearing of the case.

Talking to the news agency KNO, Advocate Monika Kohli, the special public prosecutor for CBI, said that Rubaiya Sayeed did not appear in the TADA court for her cross-examination by the accused.

“The court has issued a bailable warrant against her and directed her to remain present on the next date of the hearing scheduled on September 21,” she said.

In July this year, Rubaiya identified Yasin Malik as one of her kidnappers in 1989. Rubaiya was kidnapped in December 1989 when her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was the Union Home Minister.

The CBI counsel said the court today also turned down Yasin Malik’s plea for physical appearance, saying there were directions from the High Court to produce all the accused in all the cases through virtual mode. She said the court also offered Malik legal aid but he refused the offer.

SRINAGAR — Days after Rubaiya Sayeed, sister of Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, identified Yasin Malik as her abductor in 1989, Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone on Tuesday said that Malik deserves a fair trial.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a party function here, Lone said that Malik deserves a fair trial. “He should be given a fair trial. Justice cannot be a one-sided affair,” he told reporters, as per news agency KNO.

To a question about the identification of Malik and three others by Rubaiya Sayeed in the special CBI Court Jammu, Lone said it is their decision, “but those getting people identified and indicted don’t have the right to talk about reconciliation and dialogue”.

“They have every right to identify and indict those involved. But those identifying and indicting people have no moral right to talk about reconciliation and dialogue. Priyanka Gandhi even forgave the killers of her own father,” Lone said.

After Rubaiya Sayeed identified Malik and three others as her abductors, Mehbooba Mufti said she did her duty as per law.

Lone was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function organized by Peoples Conference to welcome former deputy director of Health Services Kashmir, Dr Bashir Chalkoo from Uri into the party fold.

SRINAGAR — All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) headed by incarcerated Mirwaiz Umar Farooq strongly condemned the conviction and sentence of life imprisonment for senior resistance leader and chairman of JKLF Muhammad Yasin Malik by the court in New Delhi.

APHC in a statement to the media said that Yasin Malik since 1994 pursued peaceful and democratic means of conflict resolution. "A strong votary of dialogue and negotiations between the concerned parties to the Kashmir conflict i.e. people of J&K, India and Pakistan, he has been relentlessly and selflessly seeking its resolution," it said.

It added, "Yasin Malik actively participated in all negotiations held on Kashmir after 2000 under various regimes in New Delhi and Islamabad. Yet he was arrested, shifted to Tihar, and has now been convicted in invented cases under draconian laws when actually he is being punished for his political beliefs on the J&K dispute and for representing the sentiments of its people."

“The complete protest strikes being observed by people despite state coercion and pressure not to allow it, show’s people's commitment to resistance against force and in support of resistance leadership in jails and under incarceration,” the statement reads.

“APHC asks the Government of India to release all political prisoners in jails across India and under house arrest, and resolve the lingering Kashmir conflict peacefully through deliberations among the parties to the dispute keeping in view the will of the people of J&K,” the statement reads, adding that imprisonment and incarceration cannot change that reality.

SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday said that 10 youth involved in chanting slogans and stone-pelting yesterday outside the residence of JKLF chief Yasin Malik, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, have been arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC) Act.

A police official told news agency Kashmir Dot Com that so far 10 accused youth have been arrested for raising anti-national slogans and stone-pelting outside Malik's home in Maisuma Srinagar.

“Others are being identified and will be arrested soon,” he said, adding that the main instigators of this hooliganism will be booked under Public Safety Act (PSA).

Srinagar Police in a tweet said that such anti-national activities and provocative posture will always be dealt with strictly and with the full force of law.

"Youth are again requested not to indulge in the activities that will spoil their careers and disrupt their families," police added.

SRINAGAR — Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Wednesday said that life imprisonment given to Yasin Malik is unfortunate and a setback to the efforts for peace.

"We are afraid that this will further compound the uncertainties in the region and will only fuel more alienation and separatist feelings," PAGD spokesman said in a statement issued to the news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO).

"NIA Court has delivered its verdict but not justice," PAGD said, adding that the triumphalism being displayed by the BJP and the corporate media is bound to prove counterproductive.

“Meanwhile, we suggest that Yaseen Malik should avail all legal opportunities to contest this verdict,” PAGD said.

Delhi Court awards life sentence to Kashmiri Separatist Leader Yasin Malik in Jammu & Kashmir terror funding case.

NEW DELHI — Separatist leader Yasin Malik was on Thursday convicted by an NIA court in Delhi in the ‘terror’ funding case.

Arguments on the quantum of the sentence will take place on May 25. Malik was also asked by the court to furnish an affidavit on his financial assets before the next date of hearing.

Earlier this month, Malik had pleaded guilty to all the charges, including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), before the court in the 'terrorism' and secessionist activities case that disturbed the Valley in 2017.

Malik told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him including Section 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act), and 20 (being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation) of the UAPA and sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code.

Pertinently, Malik is in Delhi’s high-security Tihar Jail since 2019.

BARAMULLA — Minister of State (MoS) for Cooperation and Development of North Eastern Region Government of India, BL Verma, on Wednesday said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fighting for justice for Kashmiri Pandits, who had been victimized in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to the news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO) at Dak Banglow Baramulla, Verma said that BJP is fighting hard for the legal rights and justice of Kashmiri Pandits.

About Mohammad Yasin Malik, who pleaded guilty to all the charges including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) before a Delhi court, he said that they will accept whatever the court decides regarding Malik as his party respects the judiciary and its decision.

Notably, the court will hear on May 19 the arguments on the quantum of the sentence under which Malik may get a punishment.

NEW DELHI — A Special NIA Court on Monday said that it will frame formal charges against Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik and others on April 18 in connection with a militancy funding case.

On the last date of hearing on March 19, the court ordered the framing of charges against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and others for hatching a criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country and other unlawful activities.

Kashmiri separatist leaders, including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam, former MLA Rashid Engineer, businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Bitta Karate, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Avatar Ahmad Shah, Naeem Khan, Bashir Ahmed Bhat alias Peer Saifullah and several others have also been framed under charges for criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country and other unlawful activities.

In the order dated March 16, the NIA special Judge Praveen Singh had said: “The above analysis reflects that the statements of witnesses and documentary evidence have connected almost all the accused with each other and to a common object of secession, to the commonality of means they were to use, their close association to terrorists/terrorist organisations under the guiding hand and funding of Pakistani establishment.”

Notably, the court has discharged three, namely Kamran Yusuf, Javed Ahmad Bhatt and Syedah Aasiya Firdous Andrabi.

The case is related to the various militant outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hizbul-Mujahideen (HM), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) backed by Islamic State which were perpetrating militant and secessionist activities to disturb Jammu and Kashmir.