NIA seeks death penalty for Yasin Malik, court to pass judgment later today

Yasin Malik. File Pic

National Investigation Agency (NIA) on May 25 sought the death penalty for Yasin Malik, a separatist leader from Jammu and Kashmir.

However, the NIA court reserved the order and will pass judgment on sentencing today itself at 3:30 pm. He was convicted by the NIA Court on May 19. On May 10, Malik had told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him that including Section 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act) and 20 (being a member of terrorist gang or organisation) of the UAPA and sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the IPC.

Meanwhile, the Court formally framed the charges against other Kashmiri separatist leaders who are accused in the case, 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.

On March 16, the NIA Court had ordered the framing of charges against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, Kashmiri separatist leaders including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam and others under various sections of UAPA in a case pertaining to the terrorist and secessionist activities that disturbed the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

The court had also ordered the framing of charges against Kashmiri politician and former MLA Rashid Engineer, Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Bitta Karate, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Avatar Ahmad Shah, Naeem Khan, Bashir Ahmed Bhat, alias Peer Saifullah and several others under various sections of IPC and UAPA including criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country, unlawful activities, etc. According to the NIA various terrorist organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) etc., with the support of ISI of Pakistan, perpetrated violence in the valley by attacking civilians and security forces.

It was further alleged that in the year 1993, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was formed to give a political front to secessionist activities. The NIA also stated before the court that this has been done for funding separatist and terrorist activities in J&K and as such, they have entered into a larger conspiracy for causing disruption in the valley by way of pelting stones on security forces, systematically burning schools, damage to public property and waging war against India. On this information, the Ministry of Home Affairs directed the NIA to register a case.

Accordingly, the present case was registered by NIA for offences u/s 120B, 121, 121A of IPC and sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of UAPA. The NIA further added that during the investigation it was also revealed that APHC and other secessionists instigate the general public, especially the youth, to observe strikes and to resort to violence especially stone pelting on the security forces. This was done to create disaffection amongst the people of Jammu and Kashmir towards the Government of India.

It also submitted that the investigation has revealed that the secessionists were mobilizing funds from all possible sources to fuel unrest and support the ongoing secessionist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. The secessionists were getting funds from Pakistan, funds from Pakistan based terrorist organizations and from local donations.

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