An Indian court on Wednesday has sentenced the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front’s Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik, to life imprisonment in concocted cases to punish him for his leading role in the ongoing movement for Jammu and Kashmir’s freedom from Indian illegal occupation. Special Judge of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), Praveen Singh, officially convicted Yasin Malik on May 19 in manifestly dubious and motivated cases registered against him over three decades ago. Yasin Malik had refused to contest the charges, including Section 16 (terrorist act), Section 17 (raising funds for a terrorist act), Section 18 (conspiracy to commit a terrorist act), and Section 20 (being a member of a terrorist gang or organization) of the UAPA and Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code.
The Kashmiri freedom movement is one of the oldest freedom struggles in South Asia. Being the World’s most militarized zone, the Kashmir region is in quest of freedom which dates back from the 1930s. 1947 was the year of independence for Pakistan and India but not for the Kashmiris as this valley has been a territorial dispute between Pakistan and India for the past seven decades. Pakistan supports Kashmiri’s right to self-determination and plebiscite which was promised to them and later endorsed by the UN resolution.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was one of the first armed freedom fighting groups to come into existence in occupied Kashmir. It supported an independent and united Kashmir. Led by Yasin Malik, the group gave up armed resistance in 1994.
Yasin Malik during the hearing while protesting the charges said that he was a “freedom fighter” and terrorism-related charges leveled against him are concocted, fabricated and politically motivated. Yasin Malik pledged that if seeking Azadi (freedom) is a crime, then he is ready to accept this crime and its consequences. Indian government arrested the Hurriyat leader in 2019, the same year when the special status of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir was revoked. The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front has strongly condemned the political victimization of the party Chairman, Yasin Malik, by the Indian government, people in IIOJK observed a complete shutdown against the conviction of Yasin Malik in a false case by a court of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Pakistan’s Foreign Office has condemned the framing of fabricated charges against Yasin Malik by Indian authorities and handed over a demarche to the Indian charge d’affaires. The Indian diplomat was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and conveyed Pakistan’s strongest condemnation and rejection of the malafide conviction and sentencing of Yasin Malik. Foreign Office of Pakistan categorically said that the inhuman incarceration of Yasin Malik in the infamous Tihar jail, his sham trial in concocted cases, fallacious conviction, and malfeasant attempts at defiling the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiris for their right to self-determination. The struggle for the right to self-determination in Kashmir is indigenous and cannot be dampened by the draconian strong-arm tactics of the Indian Government.
It is a fact that Indian tactics of forming false charges against Kashmiri leadership are a clear effort of persecution, and repression to quash the resolute struggle of the people of IIOJK. Nations fight for their freedom which is what Kashmiris are doing, this is an attempt of the Indian government to deprive the Kashmiri people of their true leadership in the Indian Illegally IIOJK. There seems to be a concerted effort to break the will of the Kashmiris who have continued to face the tragedies of occupation for over 70 years. The time has come when international communities should play their role and scrutinize India to respect the basic human rights of Kashmiris and arrange the implementation of UN resolutions so that the Kashmir dispute could be settled in accordance with the Kashmiris’ aspirations.
The conviction of Yasin Malik is not going to deter the spirit of the Kashmiri nation as through the historical struggle of Kashmiris, we have witnessed a series of leaders emerging for the cause. Modi regime is using the judiciary to victimize Yasin Malik and other Hurriyat leaders in gross violation of UN resolutions and the international law for seeking the liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from Indian illegal occupation.
