YASIN MALIK

ing accused in the case will continue as they have pleaded not guilty. Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin have been declared proclaimed offenders in the case.

Last week, judge Singh noted that sufficient time was provided to Malik to consider his plea. He was also granted an opportunity to have legal advice to make an informed choice. The court asked Malik if he wanted to re- think his plea. Malik responded he had taken a well-thought decision.

The court noted that amicus curiae Akhand Pratap Singh met Malik twice in the jail and explained to him the consequences of his decision and still, the separatist leader stood by his decision to plead guilty.

The court said the amicus curiae was directed to visit Malik in jail and to have a consultation so that the separatist could be made aware of the maximum punishment which could be awarded to him if he entered a guilty plea. Singh was appointed as the amicus curiae since Malik did not have a lawyer and argued his case.

Malik worked as Salahuddin’s polling agent in the 1987 elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Allegations of fraud that marred the polls have been blamed among the reasons for sparking insurgency in the region. JKLF and Hizbul Mujahideen spearheaded insurgency in the Valley in the late 1980s.

JKLF renounced violence in the mid-1990s and Malik spent years in prison.

Malik, who has undergone the aortic valve replacement, suffers from multiple ailments. He was left deaf in one ear and partially paralysed after he jumped from a fifth-floor window to escape capture in 1990. dents, her aunt Lydia Martinez Delgado told the New York Times.

“I’m furious that these shootings continue, these children are innocent, rifles should not be easily available to all,” she said in a separate statement to US media.

More than a dozen children were also wounded in the attack at the school, which teaches more than 500, mostly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students.

Uvalde Memorial Hospital said on Facebook it had received 13 children while University Health hospital in San Antonio said on Twitter it had received a 66- year- old woman and a 10-year-old girl, both in critical condition, and two other girls aged nine and 10.

At least one Border Patrol agent responding to the incident was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the shooter, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Marsha Espinosa tweeted.

Footage showed small groups of children weaving through parked cars and yellow buses, some holding hands as they fled under police escort from the school, which teaches students aged around seven to 10 years old.

It was the deadliest such incident since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut, in which 20 children and six staff were killed.

The White House ordered flags to be flown at half-mast in mourning for the victims -whose deaths sent a wave of shock through a country still scarred by the horror of Sandy Hook.

THE UNITED STATES SUFFERED 19,350 FIREARM HOMICIDES IN 2020, UP NEARLY 35% COMPARED TO 2019, AS PER THE CDC

Ted Cruz, a pro-gun rights Republican senator from Texas, tweeted that he and his wife were “lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde.”

But Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook shooting took place, made an impassioned appeal for concrete action to prevent further violence. “This isn’t inevitable, these kids weren’t unlucky. This only happens in this country and nowhere else. Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day,” Murphy said on the Senate floor in Washington.

“I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues: Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”

The deadly assault in Texas follows a series of mass shootings in the United States this month. On May 14, an 18-yearold self-declared white supremacist shot 10 people dead at a Buffalo, New York grocery store.

The following day, a man blocked the door of a church in Laguna Woods, California and opened fire on its TaiwaneseAmerican congregation, killing one person and wounding five.

Despite recurring mass-casualty shootings, multiple initiatives to reform gun regulations have failed in the US Congress, leaving states and local councils to strengthen -- or weaken -their own restrictions.

The National Rifle Association has been instrumental in fighting against stricter US gun laws. Abbott and Cruz are listed as speakers at a forum that is being held by the powerful lobby in Houston, Texas later this week.

The US suffered 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35% compared to 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest data.