An Indian court on Wednesday ordered life in jail for Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik for funding “terrorist” activities and other charges, a judge said, prompting street protests outside the politician’s residence.
Malik, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), earlier told a special court designated for the National Investigation Agency that he had been following Gandhian principles and non-violent politics after giving up arms in the 1990s.
“Life imprisonment sentence to the convict, Yasin Malik,” Special Judge Parveen Singh said in the court in New Delhi.
Malik’s wife Mushaal Hussein Mullick said the sentencing was illegitimate. “Verdict in minutes by Indian kangaroo court,” she wrote on Twitter.
“The iconic leader will never surrender.”This is hardly surprising, given what Kashmiris have undergone over the years, notably since 2019. Yasin Malik is a prominent member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which stands for a free Kashmir. He is also the chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and as a young, heroic leader is seen as an inspiration to many Kashmiri youth.
The sentence has sent them and others into a state of still greater anger against the Indian government, with Mushaal Hussein Malik, the British-born Pakistani wife of Malik has appealed for help from any quarters including Islamabad which can offer it. PML-N leaders have been quick to condemn the arrest but it is uncertain what else they can do apart from continuing to lobby globally for the release of Malik and inform world leaders about the negative impact his arrest would have on Kashmiris.
Yasin Malik has so far accepted his sentence without comment. It is no exaggeration to say that the global community has been criminally silent over the suffering of the Kashmiri people for decades now.
It is time now for international organizations as well as governments around the world to fight not just Yasin Malik’s corner but also fight for all of Kashmir.
Sentencing Yasin Malik is a sentence for all those in Indian-occupied Kashmir who are fighting against oppression and a brutal occupation. It is also an indictment of the BJP government led by Narendra Modi. If they think Yasin Malik’s arrest and sentence will quash the freedom movement, they may be in for a shock.
Yasin Malik has so far accepted his sentence without comment. It is no exaggeration to say that the global community has been criminally silent over the suffering of the Kashmiri people for decades now.
