As the National Investigative Agency demands the death penalty for Yasin Malik, the former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi has come out in support of the terror convict, seeking UN intervention in the matter.
Characterising Malik as a “freedom fighter” of “Kashmir’s struggle”, Afridi painted Malik as a victim of “fabricated charges” even though he had pleaded guilty to all charges levelled against him.
“India’s continued attempts to silence critical voices against its blatant human rights abuses are futile. Fabricated charges against #YasinMalik will not put a hold to #Kashmir‘s struggle to freedom. Urging the #UN to take notice of unfair & illegal trails against Kashmir leaders,” Afridi tweeted.
Afridi’s tweet came ahead of the Delhi Court hearing later today, which is going to decide the quantum of punishment to be awarded to Yasin Malik, who had earlier pleaded guilty to all the charges including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), in a terror funding case.
Yasin Malik pleads guilty to all charges, Delhi court to announce the quantum of punishment today
Kashmiri separatist terrorist Yasin Malik was found guilty in a terror funding case. On 10th May 2022, Yasin Malik pleaded guilty to all charges, including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act (UAPA), before a Delhi Court in a case related to terrorism and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir that convulsed the Valley in 2017. Yasin Malik had admitted that he was involved in terrorist activities, had also hatched criminal conspiracies, and that the sedition clauses against him were also correct.
Yasin Malik told the court that he did not wish to challenge the charges against himself under Sections 16 (terrorist activity), 17 (raising funds for terrorist activities), 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist activity), 18 (conspiring to commit a terrorist act), and 20 (being a member of a terrorist group or organization) of the UAPA and sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code.
Under the sections under which a case is registered against Yasin, he can get a maximum punishment of lifelong imprisonment. Yasin Malik has been active in Kashmir politics. He is one of the key instigators and secessionist leaders in the Kashmir valley.
Malik is in jail since 2019 as a part of the crackdown against the anti-India and secessionist elements in the Valley in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. He was later remanded to the NIA custody and was shifted to Delhi’s Tihar jail from Jammu’s Kot Balwal jail.
He is the chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), an outfit that was banned shortly after the Pulwama terror attack.
Malik is also accused of kidnapping former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Saeed’s daughter Rubiya Saeed in 1989 and of killing 5 IAF personnel in early 1990. He is also allegedly involved in the killing of Justice Neelkanth Ganju, the judge who had ordered the death sentence for JKLF terrorist Maqbool Bhatt, and the murder of the former director of Doordarshan Kendra in Srinagar, Lassa Kaul.
