Even as the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising of Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik had called for a protest shutdown on Thursday against the killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari and civilians in security force action, Yasin Malik was arrested from his Srinagar home on Thursday. This is the first move after Governor’s Rule was imposed in the state.
Image Courtesy: Amar Ujala
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chief Muhammad Yasin Malik was arrested from his Srinagar home on Thursday to prevent him from leading any protests against the civilian killings.
The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising of Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik had reportedly called for a protest shutdown on Thursday against the killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari and civilians in security force action. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has been placed under house arrest while Geelani also continues to be under house arrest.
He was recently arrested on the first day of Ramzan and released after six days.
He had been arrested in April after he started marching towards Lal Chowk of Srinagar after a press conference. “Following his detention, protests erupted in parts of Srinagar, with protesters clashing with the police. Prior to this in September 2017, he was arrested after gearing up to protest at the NIA headquarters in Delhi. Back in 2015 he was arrested and sent to jail on charges of attempted murder after a violent protest resulted in serious injuries to a police official. This illegal protest also saw Malik instigating his associates to disturb normal life,” a report said.
“Yasin Malik was arrested on the first day of Ramadhan and released on the sixth day of Ramadhan from police custody. During last Ramadhan too, he had to spend almost a full month in jail which is highly regrettable. It has become a preferred pastime of the rulers to arrest the JKLF chairman. As soon as anything happens anywhere, he is the first one to be put behind bars,” a JKLF spokesman said in a statement. He said, “These frequent arrests and incarcerations have put Yasin Sahib’s health in jeopardy which is fast deteriorating. The rulers should at least have some respect for the holy month of Ramadhan and should refrain from imposing harm to human beings,” The Greater Kashmir reported.
Yasin Malik
“Yasin Malik comes from a humble background. At a young age, he was one of the first five men who crossed the border in the mid-1980s, and later started an armed insurgency in the Valley. He has been arrested hundreds of times, and in the initial years of his incarceration, he was tortured badly. He suffered facial paralysis, deafness in his left ear and damage to one of his heart valves. Since the mid-1990s, after his release on health grounds, he has been espousing the cause of Kashmir’s freedom through non-violence. He has had little school education and lives almost a Spartan life in his ancestral house,” a report by Open Magazine said.
“Yasin Malik is the most prominent leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (Yasin Malik). His movement is a separatist one and he spent almost whole of his life in jail and in interrogations. Yasin Malik originally came to prominence as a militant in JKLF and underwent training on arms and ammunition in Pakistan based training camps. He has admitted to killing a group of unarmed Indian Air Force men while they were waiting for their transportation to arrive in the period of 1989-1994 in his interview with Tim Sebastian. He later surrendered and since 1995, Yasin Malik has renounced violence and calls for strictly peaceful methods to come to a settlement on the Kashmir Conflict. Yasin Malik also considers the Hindu Kashmiris to be an integral part of Kashmiri society and has insisted on their right of return. Some senior leaders of JKLF like Javid Ahmad Zargar, Javed Mir, Salim Nannaji, Bitta Karate, Iqbal Gundroo and others formed a united JKLF with Farooq Siddiqi (Farooq Papa) as its chairman,” said Pakistan Herald.
In 2009 Yasin Malik married Pakistani artist Mushaal Hussein Mullick. They became parents to a girl named Raziyah Sultana in March 2012.
He was criticised for sharing a dais with LeT chief Hafiz Saeed in 2013 at a protest in Islamabad, Pakistan.
JKLF
Al Jazeera’s profile of The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front- JKLF was founded in the 1960s with the ambition of forming an independent state of Kashmir through the reunification of Indian-administered Kashmir with Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The JKLF enjoyed much support in the valley during the 1980s and is largely credited for leading the insurrection that began in 1989.
The organisation announced a unilateral ceasefire in 1993 and gave up armed struggle as a means to achieve its political goals.
After 1993, the JKLF was transformed from an underground guerrilla organisation into a political organisation committed to fighting for Kashmir’s independence through non-violent means. This change was largely attributed to the end of Pakistani material and moral support to the JKLF after the organisation refused to support Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan and continued its advocacy for an independent and united Kashmir
By the mid-1990s there was a division within the organisation when ideological disagreements led to a split along Pakistani and Indian-administered lines. The leader of the Indian-administered wing, Yasin Malik, wanted to halt all militant activities but the leadership of the Pakistan-administered wing refused to renounce violence. This rift would break up the organisation.
The JKLF in Pakistan-administered Kashmir is headed by its president, Sardar Saghir. Amanullah Khan, one of the oldest living and foremost ideologues of the JKLF, continues to function as its chief patron. The faction remains committed to the creation of a greater and independent Kashmir through peaceful means.
Yasin Malik remains the head of the JKLF in Indian-administered Kashmir. Under Malik, the JKLF remains a key Kashmiri nationalist party in the region. The party supports the inclusion of Kashmiris as a principal party in India-Pakistan peace negotiations on Kashmir.
“Chairman of one of the breakaway factions of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Amanullah Khan is for autonomy in Kashmir. Though based in Pakistan, he has contested Pakistan’s claim for Kashmir by advocating sovereignty for the region. The other faction is headed by Yasin Malik. JKLF has its origins in JKNLF which came into origin from the Plebiscite Front being headed by Mirza Afzal Beg. It is believed that Abdul Gani Lone’s backing to Yasin Malik prevented Amanullah Khan’s entry into APHC. Amanullah Khan’s name is also on the list of 20 that India wants extradited from Pakistan. Amanullah is one of the founders of JKLF which was formed in 1977 in the United Kingdom. In initial years, it functioned from UK and PoK. His group received a staggering setback when 37 of its members were killed in Hazratbal in 1996. Amanullah is based in PoK but his faction has lost much of its strength to the Yasin Malik headed faction,” said a report by Hindustan Times from 2002.