New Delhi: An Indian court sentenced the illegally-detained Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) 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 notorious 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 and fixed hearing for (May 25) today for announcing the quantum of the sentence. He was presented before the court amid tight security. Hundreds of Indian policemen and paramilitary troops kept him under their siege when he was brought from Tihar Jail to the court.
The Indian Supreme Court has already announced that life imprisonment means that the detained person will be kept in jail till he is alive.
The NIA court had also formally framed the charges against APHC leaders including Masarrat Aalam Butt, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Syed Salahuddin, Advocate Shahid-ul-Islam, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Ayaz Muhammad Akbar, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah, and businessman, Zahoor Ahmad Watali.
The JKLF chairman, who has been languishing in New Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail for the last over four years, had told the court earlier that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him under various sections of draconian law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), and Indian Penal Code including waging war against India as he did not have trust in the Indian judiciary.
Yasin Malik was arrested by Indian police from his residence in Srinagar in February 2019 and was later shifted to New Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government arrested thousands of Kashmiris including Hurriyat leaders and activists and lodged them in different jails of occupied Kashmir and India. The Modi regime is victimizing them for opposing India’s illegal occupation of their homeland and demanding their UN recognized right to self-determination.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has said that Modi regime is using judiciary to victimize the illegally detained Muhammad Yasin Malik and other Hurriyat leaders in gross violation of UN resolutions and the international law for seeking liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from Indian illegal occupation. The APHC spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar maintained India cannot force the Kashmiri leaders to surrender their just cause by using its kangaroo courts. He urged the world community, particularly the UN, to play a role in the release of Kashmiri political detainees to save them from India’s wrath.
CONDEMNATION
Meanwhile, strongly condemn unjust sentencing of Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik in a sham trial, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Zardari-Bhutto said that India can never silence Kashmiris’ voice for freedom and self-determination. He declared that in fact this sentencing will help rejuvenate the freedom struggle of Kashmiris anew. “Pakistan stands with Kashmiri brothers and sisters and will continue to provide all possible support in their just struggle”, Bilawal reiterated the country’s resolve.
On the other hand, twitteratis lashed out at the Indian government’s fascist mentally and condemned the sentencing of Yasin Malik under draconian laws. They said that India will fail to suppress the voices of Kashmiris and their struggle for freedom from illegal occupation.
People took to their twitter handles and wrote: “Strongly condemn the unfair lifetime imprisonment of #YasinMalik. People who fight for the rights of their homeland are and will remain our heroes.”
