Srinagar: Separatist Yasin Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court on Wednesday. He was convicted under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Earlier this month, Yasin Malik had pleaded guilty to all the charges in a case related to terrorism and secessionist activities in the Kashmir valley in 2016-17. On May 19, an NIA court in Delhi convicted Yasin Malik in the terror funding case.
According to the NIA charge sheet, Yasin Malik was a part of the conspiracy of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Amir of Jamaat-ud-Dawah and other secessionists, including the members of Hurriyat Conference, who made a move in connivance with active terrorists of proscribed terrorist organizations viz Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Milat, Lashkar-e-Taiba and others to raise, receive and collect funds domestically and from abroad through various illegal channels including hawala, for funding secessionist and terrorist activities in J&K to cause disruption in the Kashmir valley by way of pelting stones on security forces, systematically burning schools, damaging public property and waging a war against India.
Here’s a timeline of terror cases against Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik:
October 1999: Yasin Malik was arrested under the Public Safety Act (PSA)
March 26, 2002: Yasin Malik was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and was detained for almost a year.
May 2007: Yasin Malik and his group JKLF launched a campaign known as Safar-i-Azadi (Journey of Freedom). Under this campaign, Yasin Malik and his colleagues visited about 3,500 towns and villages of Kashmir promoting anti-India sentiments.
February 2013: Yasin Malik shared the dais with banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed at a protest site in Islamabad.
January 12, 2016: Yasin Malik wrote a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, opposing Gilgit-Baltistan’s merger with Pakistan.
2017: National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case of terror funding against various separatists, and named Yasin Malik and four others in a charge sheet filed in 2019.
February 26, 2019: Yasin Malik’s house was searched and incriminating material including documents and electronic items was seized.
April 10, 2019: NIA arrested JKLF chief Yasin Malik in connection with a case related to the funding of terror and separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir.
March 2020: Yasin Malik and six accomplices were charged under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), the Arms Act 1959 and Ranbir Penal Code for the attack on 04 Indian Air Force personnel in Rawalpora, Srinagar on January 25, 1990.
March 2022: A Delhi court reviewed the evidence, and ordered the framing of charges against Yasin Malik and others under the stringent UAPA and Indian Penal Code.
May 10, 2022: Malik pleaded guilty to the charges framed against him. He told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him including sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act) and 20 (being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation) of the UAPA and sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the IPC.
May 19, 2022: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Delhi convicted Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik in a case related to terrorism and secessionist activities in the Kashmir Valley in 2016-17.
The primary consideration for awarding a sentence should be that it should serve as a deterrence for those who seek to follow a similar path, said the NIA judge while pronouncing the sentence order today. The convict’s crimes are of a very serious nature; These crimes were intended to strike at the heart of the idea of India and intended to forcefully succeed J&K from Union of India, observed NIA court while pronouncing sentence order in Yasin Malik terror funding case. The crime was serious as it was committed with the assistance of foreign powers & designated terrorists; The seriousness of the crime is further increased by the fact that it was committed behind the smokescreen of an alleged peaceful political movement, said the NIA court.
In March, 2020, Yasin Malik was also charged in a separate case under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), the Arms Act 1959 and Ranbir Penal Code for the attack on 04 Indian Air Force personnel. On January 25th, 1990, a group of terrorists led by Yasin Malik, fired at Air Force personnel in Srinagar’s Rawalpora area, near the Air Force station. Four personnel, including a squadron leader, Ravi Khanna, died in the attack, while 22 other personnel were injured. The CBI had filed a charge sheet in the case in 1990 itself.
Yasin Malik is also facing trial for the kidnapping of Rubaiyya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in December, 1989.