Separatist leader Yasin Malik on Tuesday 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.
Separatist leader Yasin Malik pleads guilty before Delhi court in case related to terrorism and secessionist activities in J&K
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 10, 2022
According to reports, Malik did not contest charges levelled against him, which included sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act), and 20 (being a member of a terrorist gang and organisation) of the UAPA and section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code.
The arguments regarding the quantum of sentence for the offences levelled against Malik will be heard by Special Judge Praveen Singh on May 19. The maximum punishment for the charges against Malik is life imprisonment.
In addition to this, the court also formally framed the charges against other Kashmiri separatist leaders including Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam, Md Yusuf Shah, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Khan, Md Akbar Khanday, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Abdul Rashid Sheikh, and Naval Kishore Kapoor.
Yasin Malik is accused of killing Air Force officers, funding terror outfits and conspiring to commit terror acts
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. There are various cases that are pending on Yasin Malik. He is also alleged to have killed five Air Force officers in 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 former director of Doordarshan Kendra in Srinagar, Lassa Kaul.
