Srinagar, Sept 3 (NVI) Yasin Malik, the jailed chief of terrorist outfit Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), has stated that he will not contest the charges of murdering a Kashmiri Pandit nurse in 1990 and was ready for death penalty.
The 60-year-old terrorist commander has also announced his decision to divorce his wife Mushaal Hussein Malik, a Pakistani national whom he married in 2009.
Lodged in Tihar jail since 2019, Malik has filed a 25-page affidavit before the Additional Sessions Court, Srinagar, saying he no longer wishes to challenge the proceedings in the case related to murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat.
“I will no longer contest the trial and the death penalty may be considered for me,” Malik told the court in the statement submitted through his lawyer Abu Adil Pandit.
He, however, added that his withdrawal of challenge to the charges should not be construed as an admission of guilt, claiming that he has been falsely implicated due to political circumstances.
The court has listed the matter for next hearing on September 19.
Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old staff nurse at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar, was abducted on April 18, 1990 near her hostel, adjacent to the hospital. Days later, she was found dead in a nearby colony.
In 2025, the State Investigation Agency (SIA) of the state police reopened the case and conducted raids at locations linked to Malik and others.
The chargesheet named Malik, Khurshid Ahmed Chalku, Abdul Hameed Sheikh, Mohammad Yusuf Sofi and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo.
Chalku is still on the run while Sofi, Sheikh and Taploo are dead, leaving Malik as the key living accused. Currently serving a life term in Tihar, Malik is also facing trial in a separate murder case in Jammu.
This is not the first time Malik has taken such a stand.
In May 2022, when the special NIA court in Delhi convicted him in a terror-funding case, he had refused to contest the charges and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. The NIA has since been seeking enhancement of his life term to death sentence.
In the same affidavit, Malik announced his decision to end his 16-year marriage with Mushaal Hussein Mullick. The two married in 2009 and have a 13-year-old daughter, Razia Sultana.
Mushaal lived with Yasin for a few years in Srinagar after their marriage and returned to Pakistan where she was pampered by the government.
She was made Special Advisor on Human Rights and Women Empowerment in Pakistan government from 2023 to 2025.
Yasin said for the last eight years he has not been allowed to speak to his wife on phone or see her on video call in jail, nor contact his family.
He said he does not want 40-year-old Mushaal “to live her whole life carrying the burden of this situation or living like a widow. I want her to start a new chapter of her life with dignity and hope.” (NVI)
