Yasin Malik gets life, Pakistan’s Sharif hits out
AN INDIAN court on Wednesday (25) ordered life in jail for Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik for funding ‘terrorist’ activities and many other charges, prompting street protests outside his residence and condemnation from Pakistan’s prime minister.
Malik, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), had pleaded guilty to the charges but on Wednesday told the special court where his trial was held that he had been practicing non-violent politics in Kashmir after giving up arms in the 1990s.
Mainly Hindu India has been fighting an armed militancy in Muslim-majority
Kashmir, also claimed by neighboring Pakistan, for decades.
‘It is high time that it is recognized that terror funding is one of the gravest offences and has to be punished more severely,’ special judge Parveen Singh said in the court in New Delhi, announcing Malik’s life imprisonment under a section of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The court is designated for cases brought by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which mainly handles offences deemed to affect the sovereignty, security and integrity of India.
According to the Indian government, Malik had been at the ‘fore-front of separatist activities and violence since 1988’ in the Kashmir valley. It says many Kashmiri Hindus had to flee because of violence committed against them by Malik’s group in 1989.
Malik, who was convicted last week, had pleaded guilty to the 10 charges brought against him by the NIA, including waging or attempting to wage war against the government, and helping raise funds for anyone to ‘commit a terrorist act’.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said it was a ‘black day’ for Indian democracy and its justice system.
‘India can imprison Yasin Malik physically but it can never imprison idea of freedom he symbolises,’ Sharif said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, India on Friday (27) described as ‘unacceptable’ the comments made by OIC-IPHRC (Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission) criticizing New Delhi for the court ruling against Malik.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the world seeks ‘zero tolerance’ against terrorism and urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) not to justify it in any manner.