Yasin Malik threatens to start ‘fast-unto-death’ in Tihar Jail

Kashmiri separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik has threatened to begin “fastunto-death” in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where he is currently lodged after a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court sent him in judicial custody on his arrest in connection with an alleged terror funding case last year.

Malik’s mother and sister here and wife in Pakistan simultaneously announced on Thursday that he would be on ‘fast-unto-death’ from April 1 in protest against what he has alleged is “bias” shown by the authorities during his trial in a court in Jammu.

A special

Terrorist and

Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act — Tada — court at Jammu had earlier this week framed charges against Malik who heads Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and six others in connection with the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel including a squadron leader in a sneak militant attack that took place in Srinagar in early 1990. The charges include murder, attempt to murder, hatching conspiracy for it and possessing arms illegally.

But 53-year-old separatist leader has said that he was not being allowed to appear in the court to defend himself and that during a video conferencing arranged by the authorities he could not put forth his view before the judge.

“A concocted case has been framed against me by NIA too and, on the other hand, a trial is going on in Jammu TADA court where without hearing me or giving me a chance to represent myself, I and my colleagues were charge-sheeted on March 16”, his wife Mushaal Hussein Mullick quoted him as saying. He said that though he has every legal right to be presented physically before the court, the concerned authorities are not allowing it.

He has added, “I’m being presented through video link conference, where neither I am able to hear the arguments of lawyers nor am I being allowed to speak. I have already withdrawn my counsel”.