ISLAMABAD: Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik’s wife, Mushaal Hussein Mullick, on Tuesday condemned the Indian State Investigation Agency’s (SIA) decision to implicate him in the 36-year-old murder case of a nurse in Srinagar.
According to The Hindu, the SIA filed a 737-page chargesheet before a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court, naming Malik as an accused in the April 1990 killing of Sarla Bhat, a nurse from the Kashmiri Pandit community. The investigation into Bhat’s murder, which had remained dormant for decades, was reopened on the directions of former lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha following demands from Kashmiri Pandit groups.
Speaking to Hum English, Mushaal Mullick described the development as “a blatant display of political vendetta” and a complete “mockery of legal norms.”
‘Pre-manufactured script’
Mushaal Mullick said reviving a nearly four-decade-old case without what she described as credible physical evidence was a “transparent strategy” to ensure Malik remained “permanently silenced” and “locked away from his people”.
“The true absurdity and desperation of this 737-page chargesheet are exposed by the fact that it names individuals who passed away decades ago, proving that this is a pre-manufactured script designed for judicial persecution rather than a legitimate legal process,” she said.
Calling on the international community to speak out, she said continued silence was “enabling fascist behaviour” and amounted to a “planned judicial murder.”
“Yasin Sahib transitioned to a peaceful, non-violent democratic struggle decades ago, yet he is being subjected to relentless isolation, denied a fair trial, and threatened with the gallows simply for representing the true aspirations of the Kashmiri people. The global community must break its silence, demand an immediate end to these fabricated legal charades, and pressure India to protect the life and basic human rights of Yasin Sahib before this blatant injustice pushes the region deeper into instability,” Mullick added.
The Sarla Bhat case
According to The Hindu, the SIA said its investigation concluded that Bhat’s killing was part of a broader terrorist conspiracy allegedly orchestrated under the command of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), rather than an isolated act of violence.
Investigators alleged that Malik, along with Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Mohammad Yousuf Sofi and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo, planned and carried out Bhat’s abduction and killing.
The agency said Bhat was abducted, tortured, physically assaulted and later shot dead in Srinagar. Three of the accused are now deceased, while Chalkoo is alleged to have fled to Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Malik, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2022 in a separate terror funding case, remains behind bars in Tihar Jail.
Police described the charge sheet as a landmark breakthrough in the investigation of legacy terrorism cases, saying it was based on decades of oral, documentary, forensic, ballistic, medical and electronic evidence and underscored that those accused of terrorist crimes could still be held accountable despite the passage of time.
Life imprisonment
Earlier in May 2022, Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in New Delhi after being convicted under anti-terrorism laws, BBC reported. During the court proceedings, Malik said he had renounced armed struggle in the 1990s and had not been involved in violence since then. The court imposed two life sentences along with five separate 10-year prison terms, to run concurrently. His conviction came amid the long-running conflict in Indian-Occupied Kashmir.