Sources: Reuters
Yasin Malik, Indian-administered Kashmir’s prominent pro-independence leader, was imprisoned in New Delhi and charged with a series of cases, including the reopening of a 30-year old case of gunning down of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel
on March 16, 2020.
However, rights activists and family members have alleged that he is being denied a fair trial.
The Kashmiri separatist leader is the chief of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), which was banned by the Indian government last year and declared an “unlawful association” that incited terrorism.
Malik’s JKLF had announced a unilateral ceasefire in 1994 after confirmations of a political settlement and suspension of militancy-related cases against him and his colleagues by the Indian state, according to an open letter he released from prison through his family last month.
In his letter, Malik accused the judge of behaving like a prosecuting or police officer and being denied a fair trial.
“Though I have every legal right to be presented physically before the court, but the judge and the CBI at the behest of government are not allowing me to present myself before the trial court physically,” he wrote.
“I am being presented through video conference, where neither I am able to hear the arguments of the lawyers nor am I being allowed to speak,” he added
Tufail Raja, the lawyer representing Malik in the NIA’s terror funding” case, alleged that cases are being fabricated against him.
Human rights groups in Kashmir have also accused the government of being unfair towards Malik.
Many people in Kashmir fear Malik is next in line to be judicially murdered by India’s right-wing government to further their political gains. In 1984, JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat was executed by the Indian state.
Meanwhile, Malik’s deteriorating health in jail has also added to the woes of his family.
“He has cardiological issues. Due to interrogations by security agencies, his heart valve had to be replaced. The current pandemic and poor conditions in jail worry us more,” a family member told Al Jazeera news agency.
He is presently lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a two-year-old case of terror and separatist funding.
When the NIA arrested him in April 2019, he was already in jail in Jammu city as he was charged under the Public Safety Act (PSA). The law allows imprisonment up to a year without trial.
Days before that, Malik was under preventive custody in a Srinagar jail following an alleged rebel attack on a paramilitary convoy in Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14, 2019 in which more than 40 Indian soldiers were killed.
The separatist leader has also been charged with the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officers in 1990, shortly after the armed resistance began in the region.
Malik’s lawyers maintain that the charges do not stand since Malik and his accomplices were armed rebels who had announced a unilateral ceasefire in 1994.
The filing of all these cases against the leading pro-freedom leader has forced many in the disputed region to fear that the Indian state has already decided to sign his death warrant.
The armed resistance against the Indian rule in Kashmir began in 1989, with a majority of people and rebel groups in the region demanding either independence or merger with neighbouring Pakistan.
Both India and Pakistan rule over parts of Kashmir territory, but claim it in its entirety.
In a controversial decision in August last year, India divided its only Muslim-majority state to create two federally-administered territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The move was followed by a seven-month lockdown in the region and arrests of all major political and rebel leaders.
