NEW DELHI: An Indian court on Wednesday has sentenced the illegally detained Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JLF) Chairman Yasin Malik to life imprisonment 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. convicted Yasin Malik on May 19 in manifestly dubious and motivated cases registered against him over three decades ago and fixed hearing 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.
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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.
