“Why would anyone want to surrender, give up the gun, if this is how they will be treated?” This is one of many questions that are being asked behind closed doors in Kashmir. The people are asking peace activists what the point was in sentencing Muhammad Yasin Malik, now 56 years old, to life imprisonment in decades old cases, when it has not been made public what the nature of the offence was.

Some asked, “Who has he killed?” Many others continue to remind that Malik has not picked up the gun, keeping his promise given to the government of India 28 years ago. Malik had renounced violence in 1994.

According to a report in NDTV, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday urged the court to give the death penalty to Yasin Malik. The lawyer, who attended the court proceeding, said in the courtroom, “Yasin said that if I have been involved in any terrorist activity or violence in 28 years, if Indian Intelligence proves this, then I will also retire from politics. I will accept the hanging. I have worked with seven Prime Ministers.” Malik reportedly added, “I will not beg for anything. The case is before this court and I leave it to the court to decide it.” NIA Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) reportedly also told the court that Yasin Malik “is responsible, in part, for the Kashmiri exodus.” However, the court responded, “Let’s not go into all this. Stick to the facts. This is a terror funding case.”

On Wednesday afternoon, according to news reports, soon after news of Yasin Malik getting two life sentences, fines, and additional jail terms spread, hundreds of locals protested on the streets in Maisuma area of Srinagar, where he hails from. The protesters allegedly “threw stones at the police and paramilitary forces” and the police fired tear gas shells to disperse them.  

The J-K Police arrested 10 persons under anti-terror laws, and told the media that more protesters will be identified, and that “some would be booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) that allows the government to detain a person without trial for up to a year.” The Police tweeted, “Others are being identified and will be arrested soon. Case has been registered under UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) and IPC (Indian Penal Code). The main instigators of this hooliganism will be booked under PSA.”

10 accused arrested so far in anti-national sloganeering & stone pelting outside home of Yasin Malik prior to sentencing in Maisuma yesterday. All other areas remained peaceful. Youths are again requested not to indulge in activities that can spoil their careers & disrupt familes pic.twitter.com/mq2XgxARD9

— Srinagar Police (@SrinagarPolice) May 26, 2022

Others are being identified & will be arrested soon. Case has been registered under ULPA & IPC. The main instigators of this hooliganism will be booked under PSA. Such anti-national activities & provocative posture will be always dealt strictly & with full force of law.

— Srinagar Police (@SrinagarPolice) May 26, 2022

According to the Indian Express, the police arrested the youth during night raids at Maisuma and its surrounding areas. The publication reported that “police sources said the aim was to ensure that people do not take to the streets. The police fear that if protests are allowed at any place, they could spiral into massive protests across the Kashmir Valley.”

It is interesting to note that a peaceful yet vocal protest against the government is still continuing in the Valley, for over two weeks, following the killing of Kashmiri Pandit government employee Rahul Bhat. As SabrangIndia has reported previously, the protesters burnt effigies, and have publicly raised slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership and demanded protection for the community and justice for Rahul Bhat’s family. Since then, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, as well as senior police and administration officials have met the Bhat family and protesters. Those protests however continue on the streets of the valley, said local sources.

The public protests after Yasin Malik’s sentencing, however, have been seen as “anti-national sloganeering”. ​​The NIA court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to Kashmiri separatist leader and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik in a terror funding case. Malik did not contest the charges against him.

As reported in the media, Malik has been awarded two life sentences, and multiple imprisonments and fines under various sections, these are: Section 17 of UAPA: Life imprisonment fine ₹10 lakh; Section 121 of IPC: Life imprisonment; Section 18 of UAPA: Imprisonment of 10 years and ₹10,000 fine; Section 20 of UAPA: Imprisonment of 10 years and ₹10,000 fine; Section 38 and 39 of UAPA: Imprisonment of 5 years and ₹5,000 fine; Section 120B of IPC: Imprisonment of 10 years and ₹10,000 fine; and Section 121A of IPC: Imprisonment of 10 years and ₹10,000 fine. Special judge Praveen Singh who pronounced the order said that the sentence will run concurrently, stated news reports.

Advocate Akhand Pratap Singh (court-appointed amicus) had sought minimum punishment (life imprisonment), reported NDTV. Malik was reportedly convicted for being part of a conspiracy between Kashmiri separatists, the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and its leader Hafiz Saeed and for raising and accepting funds for carrying out terrorist activities.

This conviction comes 28 years after Malik renounced violence. This itself is a chronicle of the militancy in Kashmir, which is allegedly supported by Pakistan. The “Kashmir issue” has been invoked by political parties, especially by the right-wing that claims to “be solving it”, and Malik is the poster boy of “punishment given” even though he was among the most prominent names to give up arms, after he had picked up the gun more than 30 years ago.

Yasin Malik renounced violence as a way of resolving J&K issue a long time ago. He was treated as a stakeholder in a dialogue initiated by then PM Vajpayee ji. What will a ban on his organisation achieve? Detrimental steps like these will only turn Kash into an open air prison.

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) March 22, 2019

Years ago, Malik told BBC, “There are cases against me pending in court, but now 11 years have passed and the Government of India has not even started the trials.” Yasin as the leader of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front, has been held responsible for crimes the outfit has been accused of, said a local. Media reports say these cases include that of the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and the killing of four Indian Air Force personnel in Srinagar in 1990. Malik was arrested in 2019, JKLF was banned that year after the Pulwama CRPF bus bombing. Charges were framed in both cases, since 2020.

However, as peace activists on the ground stated, it was believed by the authorities that “Malik would be more useful as a free man.” RAW chief A S Dulat, who was then on the Kashmir desk of the IB” oversaw his release a few yers later and wrote in his book Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years published in 2015, about meeting Malik who told him at their first meeting that there was nothing to talk about except “azaadi”. Malik was by then “a self-proclaimed believer” in Gandhian ways.  

Cardiac surgeon Dr Upendra Kaul, who had treated Malik at AIIMS, reportedly said it was Dulat who “had approached him with a request that he examine Malik as the Government of India was planning to release him.” The Indian Express quoted Dr Kaul recalling that Malik “had a leaking heart valve. It needed treatment, and he was operated upon.” The doctor said Malik “was a good and obedient patient. We never discussed politics. He had his convictions. What was the point?” According to the report, Malik stayed in touch with the doctor off and on and that according to Dulat, “Malik was “great friends” with A K Doval, who is now India’s National Security Adviser, and J&K cadre IAS officer Wajahat Habibullah.”

In his youth, Malik, had a cult following in the Valley, but then he gave up the gun, and was seen as a moderate separatist leader. It was this image and popularity among the youth that the Union government perhaps planned to use, to bring more former militants, and separatists into the mainstream.

Malik boycotted elections, and reportedly “told people the government would use the turnout to tell the world that Kashmir had returned to normal.” Malik was arrested in 1999 under Public Safety Act (PSA) and released in 2002, reported the Kashmir Observer.

Malik has over the years maintained Kashmiris’ “self determination” as the main issue in the India-Pakistan peace process. This was to mean Kashmir, India and Pakistan as participants in the peace talks, and Malik launched the “Safar-e-Azadi” movement.

According to peace activists, while separatists did not take part in the Kashmir Round Table Conference, they were a part of “back-channel talks” with the authorities. Malik has reportedly met seven Prime Ministers, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. However, the current government, say activists, had put most Kashmiri activists, politicians, separatists, lawyers etc in jail in 2019. “The same government is talking to the Naga seperatist leaders, why are Kashmiris being treated differently,” asked an activist.

Malik had told the BBC, “When people look at Yasin Malik, they have to look at three Yasin Maliks — one from ’84 to ’88 [student activist], second from ’88 till 1994 [militant], and third from ’94 till onward [Gandhian].”

Things changed drastically in the Valley after the 2016, killing of Hizb commander Burhan Wani that year. Wani in death, was ‘reborn’ as a cult figure of sorts. Unlike Malik who had renounced guns and violence, Wani became “the face of Kashmir’s militancy”. In spite of that the fact that Malik’s life sentence has once again evoked so much emotion in the Valley is telling. Are people seeing it as some kind of a betrayal of the man who had returned to the path of peace talks? Did the Indian State also change its position? These are some of the questions also being asked in low tones in the Valley, “the state through its actions is showing its intentions for Kashmir. The people are disappointed.” Peace activists now have an uphill task of building the people’s trust in the system.

Malik’s sentencing has been closely watched in Pakistan as well. Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan called it “a black day for Indian democracy & its justice system”.

Today is a black day for Indian democracy & its justice system. India can imprison Yasin Malik physically but it can never imprison idea of freedom he symbolises. Life imprisonment for valiant freedom fighter will provide fresh impetus to Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) May 25, 2022

BilawalBhuttoZardari, chairman PPP called it a “fallacious conviction” on “fabricated charges”.

I strongly condemn Indian court’s fallacious conviction of #YasinMalik on fabricated charges.#YasinMalik is prominent & respected voice among Hurriyat leaders in the IIOJK
His firm resolve against decades of Indian oppression cannot be shaken by such travesties of justice. https://t.co/sRzWbGX71v

— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) May 24, 2022

Malik’s wife, Mushaal Hussein Mullick has been spearheading the campaign for his release since he was last arrested.

Yasin Malik is the bravest man to challenge the Hitler Modi of this era and we are all with him and pray for the safe release of the Lion of Kashmir. #ReleaseYasinMalik

— Mushaal Hussein Mullick (@MushaalMullick) May 27, 2022

Thank you @SAfridiOfficial A winner is a dreamer who never gives up, that quote of Nelson Mandela resonates from every pore & pulse of Yasin Malik! #ReleaseYasinMalik https://t.co/IVKmdw7xbz

— Mushaal Hussein Mullick (@MushaalMullick) May 26, 2022

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The post Yasin Malik’s NIA trial, conviction, and its impact on the ground in Kashmir appeared first on SabrangIndia.

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.

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Image credit: JKCCS
 
On the 56^th day of Khurram Pervez’s detention, November 9, the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) released a ‘people’s dossier’ about Parvez to “once again draw attention to the unlawful detention” of the human rights activist, and “the ongoing violence against the people of Jammu and Kashmir.” Parvez is associated with JKCCS as Jammu and Kashmir Programme Coordinator.
 
The 27-page-dossier released talks about Parvez’s work worldwide including and in the context of the violence inflicted by the Indian army on the civilians and instability caused by the heavy militarisation in the state.

Ever since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani on July 8 this year, continued illegal detentions, arrests and violence apart from other forms of state repression have shattered the fragile peace in the state. Worst has been the impact of pellets in firings by the army, para-military and police, actions that have left a trail of permanently visually impaired youngsters and injured in the state.
 
It reads, “Jammu and Kashmir is the most militarised zones in the world where an estimated 7,00,000 Indian armed forces have been deployed. For the past 26 years, civilians have faced widespread and systematic attacks by Indian forces resulting in 70,000+ extra-judicial killings, 8000+ enforced disappearances, 7000+ unmarked and mass graves and numerous cases of torture and sexual violence. With Parvez at the forefront, JKCCS has extensively documented and litigated human rights violations by Indian state forces.” 
 
It calls detention of Parvez “typical of the Indian state’s consistent use of the Public Safety Act” to suppress the voices of those who talk about “India’s human rights abuses” and keep them “out of circulation”.
 
It is estimated that more than 9,000 people from the valley including political activists and minors have been jailed, and at least 500 are detailed under Public Safety Act during the ongoing curfew since Wani’s killing. Use of pellet guns have injured thousands of civilians in the state, including a large number of children.
 
Referring to these appalling numbers, the dossier read “Over the last three months, the fundamental rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir have been severely curtailed through continuous curfews, restrictions on peaceful gatherings – marches, funeral processions and public prayers – and a blockade of telecommunication services. A popular news daily, Kashmir Reader has been banned, working journalists have been physically attacked by state forces, and their homes vandalised. State forces have killed more than 100 civilians and injured more than 15,000. 1000 civilians have had their eyes damaged due to the use of shot gun pellets on protestors."

JKCCS has demanded immediate release of Khurram, and total reinstatement of “his rights and freedoms”. The dossier cites international support for Khurram as a result of his diligent work in the human rights area. It reads, “Parvez’s arrest has drawn expressions of international solidarity, demands for immediate release, and strong condemnation of the Indian state, from the world community, including in an open letter signed by eminent scholars, thinkers and activists, such as Dr. Naom Chomsky, Dr. Judith Butler, and Arundhati Roy.” 
 
Several organisations have spoken up for Khurram and have extended their support to the human rights activist. The list in the dossier includes names like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Lawyers Watch Canada, International Commission of Jurists, Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearance, Frontline Defenders, as well as local, Indian and Pakistani human rights groups such as Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, Parveena Ahanger-led APDP, Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights, Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties, Coalition of Democratic Rights Organizations, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association and Defence for Human Rights, Pakistan.

Releasing the Dossier, the JKCCS President, Advocate Parvez Imroz reportedly said, “Despite widespread global condemnation of illegal detention of Khurram Parvez, the Indian State has chosen violence over processes of justice and rule of law. The government has ignored the demand of five Special Rapporteurs Working Groups of the UN for the immediate release of Khurram Parvez. Today’s release of the dossier must serve to once again draw attention to the unlawful detention of Khurram Parvez and the ongoing violence against the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”
 
Malik’s arrest and Mirwaiz’s detention

A day after release of the dossier by JKCCS, in which the government has been criticised for its unending session of arrests, Yasin Malik was arrested while the Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz was put under house arrest.

Image credit: The Indian Express
 
This came a day before the scheduled ‘separatist march’ that was to take place on Friday in Srinagar. 
 
The Indian Express reported that the joint leadership of separatists, comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik, had also called upon people to march towards Jamia Masjid for a “freedom congregation” Friday. The three leaders were to address the people at the mosque.

However, police arrested Malik from his residence in Maisuma locality of Srinagar and shifted him to the central jail. Malik had been released last month after four months of imprisonment. Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at his residence in the capital.

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