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A particular court docket in New Delhi sentenced Kashmiri separatist chief Yasin Malik to life imprisonment final week after discovering him responsible of funding terrorism and secessionist actions that rocked the Kashmir Valley in 2017.
The Nationwide Investigation Company demanded the utmost punishment, the loss of life penalty, to be handed to Malik. The court docket gave him two life sentences and 5 10-year jail phrases, all to be served concurrently.
Malik had earlier pleaded responsible of all fees, together with these beneath the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act (UAPA). “If looking for Azadi (freedom) is against the law, then I’m prepared to just accept this crime and its penalties,” Malik instructed the court docket. Authorized specialists say that Malik can enchantment within the Delhi Excessive Court docket towards the sentence, however not his conviction.
Fifty-six-year-old Malik heads the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Entrance (JKLF), whose objective is full independence for Jammu and Kashmir, together with all territories beneath Indian and Pakistani management.
Disillusioned with democracy after witnessing from shut quarters the rigging of the 1987 elections in J&Ok, Malik crossed the Line of Management into Pakistani Kashmir for weapons coaching. In 1989, Rubaiyya Saeed, daughter of the then House Minister Mufti Mohammed Saeed, was kidnapped by the JKLF. Rubaiyya was subsequently freed in trade for the discharge of 5 JKLF militants then in jail.
India’s abject give up to the JKLF boosted Malik’s stature in J&Ok and offered a shot within the arm to the then incipient anti-India insurgency. Months later, Malik grabbed the media highlight once more when he and different JKLF militants shot useless 4 Indian Air Drive officers in Srinagar.
The JKLF beneath Malik dominated the militancy in early levels of the insurgency. Nevertheless, it collapsed rapidly. Its pro-independence stance drew the ire of Pakistan’s Inter-Providers Intelligence (ISI). Appearing on the ISI’s orders, the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), which helps Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, focused JKLF militants. Earlier than lengthy the JKLF was worn out. Indian counter-insurgency operations and fratricidal combating amongst militant teams weakened its capability to tackle India.
In 1994, Malik declared a unilateral ceasefire towards the Indian safety forces and introduced that he was switching to non-violent strategies to battle for his targets.
Forward of his sentencing final week, Malik instructed the court docket that after laying down weapons in 1994, he had “adopted (the) rules of Mahatma Gandhi,” the chief of India’s freedom motion who waged a non-violent battle towards British colonial rule. “I’ve been following non-violent politics in Kashmir,” Malik stated.
Dismissing his claims, Choose Praveen Singh identified that Malik “by no means expressed any remorse for the violence he had dedicated previous to the 12 months 1994.” Neither did he ever condemn militant violence within the Kashmir valley.
Proponents of a muscular strategy on Kashmir have hailed the sentence handed out to Malik. In truth, some hope that when he’s tried for the homicide of the IAF officers – fees have been filed towards Malik in 2020 – the court docket will order his hanging.
Nevertheless, locking up Malik and even hanging him is not going to make India’s issues in Kashmir go away. Reasonably, it might deepen Kashmiri alienation from the Indian state; Malik’s sentencing triggered mass protests in Srinagar, the capital of J&Ok.
For the reason that mid-Nineties, at the same time as successive authorities in New Delhi stored up the stress on militants by way of counter-insurgency operations, they have been participating in quiet talks with numerous separatist leaders like Malik, Abdul Gani Lone, Shabir Shah, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Abdul Ghani Bhat, and others.
Most of them should not lively on the scene any longer, both felled by militant bullets, useless on account of outdated age, or languishing in jail. By sentencing Malik to a lifetime in jail, India has eliminated a political separatist who it might have engaged with to discover a political resolution.
Since 2014, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) authorities’s most well-liked strategy to the Kashmir disaster has been muscular and militaristic. Whereas stepping up army operations towards separatist militants, it has been systematically weakening political separatists and mainstream politicians.
In August 2019, the Narendra Modi authorities unilaterally stripped J&Ok of its autonomy and introduced it beneath New Delhi’s direct rule. Political separatists like Mirwaiz Farooq have been in home arrest since then, whereas former Chief Ministers like Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti have suffered spells beneath home arrest over the previous three years. Whereas undermining the credibility of the mainstream politicians who’ve stood by India and took part in its democratic processes and establishments.
Modi is systematically taking out the moderates among the many separatists.
Malik’s sentencing is prone to have surged help for Modi amongst hardline Hindus. However it’s prone to hamper the hunt for a negotiated settlement. By jailing Malik for all times, it has slammed the door shut on negotiations with Kashmiris. Many Indians, together with some Kashmiris might dislike Malik and different separatists. Nevertheless, they do characterize the aspirations of a piece in Kashmir.
By not participating with that part on the desk, India can be left having to take care of the militant hardline Kashmiris.
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