Kashmiri Politicians Stand Up for Peaceful Coexistence, Respond to NIA Plea against Yasin Malik

A day after National Investigation Agency of India moved to the High Court with a plea seeking death penalty for Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Mohammed Yasin Malik, politicians from Kashmir have strongly responded to the plea.

The JKLF chairman is currently serving a life sentence after being convicted by a Delhi court in a militancy funding case in May ’23. Malik is currently lodged in the Tihar jail of New Delhi.

NIA’s plea that the court has listed for May 29 has evoked strong response from political circles across Jammu Kashmir. The former chief minister of Jammu Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti reacted sharply to a tweet by Altaf Bukhari, who is the chairman of newly formed Apni Party.

Apni Party chairman in a tweet said that it was important to address the issue of militancy funding in Kashmir and deterent measures should be taken to stop those involved in militancy funding.

To this, Mehbooba Mufti, the president of People’s Democratic Party and formern chief minister of Jammu Kashmir responded, “In a democracy like India where even the assassins of a PM were pardoned, the case of a political prisoner like Yasin Malik must be reviewed & reconsidered. The new political ikhwan gleefully supporting his hanging are a grave threat to our collective rights.”

Sajad Lone, former minister of Jammu Kashmir and chairman of People’s conference said that people of Jammu Kashmir should be allowed to breath.

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NIA plea on Yasin Malik is dangerous. It is a humble plea. Let u not be misled by fair weather Kashmir experts. Please — every situation has a short term and a long term. Let the short term enforced calm not blind you to the possible long term turbulence.

And May I very humbly ask what about those who created Yasin. What about those who rigged elections held under Indian constitution and jailed, political workers, tortured them, tortured their families. And didn’t rest until they ensured that they push them to the wall — to an extent where they pick up arms. I don’t condone taking up arms. But can’t we condemn those who forced arms on to a young person.

Are those rigged 1987 elections and in process created hundreds and thousands of Yasin immune to prosecution. Are those who filled graveyards post 1987 outside the ambit of Law. Is it always the poor man’s son who has to face the law, who has to face the gallows?, Sajad Lone asked.

We have been hearing threatening noises from the last nine years. Threatened to take action. Yet no action. Action will never be taken against them. Only threaten to take action, he said.

“Nine FIRs against Yasin when he had not even seen a gun. All FIRs pertaining to elections. But given an anti national form and shape,” Sajad Lone said in his tweet.

And why don’t you have the moral courage at least to do a basic research of the case filed against Yasin in the year 2001 or early 2002. It was the Vajpayee era and there was a pro dialogue fervour. Talks of reconciliation was in the air.

And a desperate chief minister of that era was desperately desperate to stall, impede, sabotage any such reconciliatory move.

Few things he did. When the Central Government was holding talks with active militants of HM, the Chief Minister office of that time leaked the venue of the talks which was supposed to be a secret. The militants arrived at Nehru Guest House presuming total secrecy and a perfect hideaway, Sajad Lone said.

“To their astonishment hundreds of media men were already there and they were left red faced. They didn’t even have handkerchiefs to cover their face. Most of them were subsequently killed by “unidentified persons”. And that was the end of talks,” Sajad Lone said.

Other thing that the desperate CM of that time did was to slap false cases against secessionist political leaders. May I ask. Is Yasin’s case one such similar case, he asked.

Let us Kashmiris live in peace. No more experiments. We need oxygen from the rest of the country as we are gasping for political breath. We cannot afford Kashmir being the oxygen for the political landscape in the rest of the country, he demanded.

“I disagree with Yasin Malik’s ideology and have stood to unequivocally oppose his views and his past all my life with an unwavering conviction.However, seeking a death penalty for him doesn’t help anyone BUT his ideological narrative. Justice isn’t a path taken vindictively,” Junaid Azim Mattoo, who is the mayor of Srinagar city tweeted.