By Ajay Kaul
Yasin Malik, a terrorist of Kashmir who has admittedly killed several innocent people, has resorted to a fresh gimmick to attract attention and sympathies.
The chief of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) terrorist outfit, who is lodged in Tihar jail, has claimed that he does not wish to contest charges of murdering a young Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat in 1990 and is ready for death penalty.
“Considering my personal circumstances and after deep reflection, I have decided not to contest the trial proceedings further,” the 60-year-old has said in an affidavit filed in a local court in Srinagar where the cases is under trial.
“My decision shall not be treated as an admission of any prosecution fact, guilt or acceptance of the allegations made against me. I request capital punishment,” he has added.
This is pure gimmick aimed at projecting himself as a martyr and a hero for anti-India forces.
The gimmick is also to attract attention and sympathies since he has largely been forgotten and has become redundant in the affairs of Kashmir.
The rabid anti-India terrorist enjoyed a lot of attention for decades while pursuing separatist agenda but since the last 7-8 years, he has become inconsequential, especially after he was imprisoned in decades-old cases of terrorism.
Why is it a gimmick?
By making the statement that he does not want to contest the murder charges and was ready to face the gallows, Malik has attempted to gain support.
It’s actually a way of telling his sympathisers that he still exists. That is why he has made a lot of effort in drafting the 25-affidavit to give an emotional touch to his statement.
By making this kind of move, he is hoping to get support from so-called human rights activists who have not been pampering him lately as they did earlier.
His move is a gimmick because his statement has been made in a local court and he is quite aware that the matter will go to High Court and then to the Supreme Court, in case death penalty is to be awarded to him.
His cunning attempt is to get intervention from somewhere before his matter goes to the Superior courts.
Even as he has said he is ready for death penalty, he is conscious that capital punishment is given in the rarest of rare cases in India and he would most likely escape under that provision.
That process will anyway take decades.
In the meantime, he has created a buzz to gain relevance.
But perhaps he has missed one stark reality – the times have changed a lot and there is hardly anyone to come in his support in Kashmir.
He would have expected that people in Kashmir would hit the streets and beat their chests in his support. But no such thing has happened in the valley, although days have passed since his statement became public.
Even the politicians known for their separatist leanings have not uttered a word in his favour.
What is the Case?
Yasin Malik has been charged for the abduction and murder of Sarla Bhat, a nurse at state-run Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar in 1990.
The 23-year-old girl was abducted from near her hostel adjacent to the hospital in Soura area of Srinagar on April 18 and her body was found a few days later in an adjoining locality.
Thirty six years later, Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) filed a 737-page chargesheet in the case on June 29 this year. It named Malik as one of the accused.
Malik’s affidavit says that SIA officers questioned him in Tihar Jail on June 2 and 3 about an alleged JKLF handwritten note said to have been recovered from the scene and about the prosecution allegation that he had ordered Bhat’s killing.
Malik denies his personal involvement and claims that he has been falsely implicated.
Who is Yasin Malik?
Even if one were to believe him that he was not involved in the abduction and murder of Sarla Bhat, he remains a criminal of the worst order, going by his track record.
Hailing from Maisuma area of Srinagar, he joined militancy in 1988 at the behest of Pakistan with the agenda of separating Jammu and Kashmir from India.
He was one of the first Kashmiris to cross over to Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) for undergoing arms training imparted by Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.
After his return in the same year, he started the campaign of bloodshed and mayhem in Kashmir valley.
He personally killed several innocent people, mostly Kashmiri Pandits who were then forced to leave the Valley because of the extreme fear.
Malik also brutally shot dead 4 unarmed personnel of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and injured several others, when they were waiting for their official bus at a bus stand in Srinagar in the morning of January 25, 1990.
In a TV appearance, he has admitted to that crime.
He was also involved in the abduction of Rubiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, in December 1989. The government had to release 5 hardcore terrorists to secure her release.
He committed several other heinous crimes, including armed attacks on security forces when he was an active militant between 1988 and 1994.
In his affidavit, the terrorist has addressed his mother, saying she has “suffered immensely” during the past eight years because he has been in jail. He has also pretended his love for his Pakistani wife Mushaal and daughter Razia Sultana to gain sympathies.
But what about the dear ones of the innocent people whom he murdered in cold blood? What about his crimes of making the minor children of the IAF personnel and others orphans?
Will he ever pay for those crimes? He has never even expressed regrets for such crimes and now is playing a victim. (NVI)
