Yasin Malik Says He Informed Ex-PM Manmohan Singh After Hafiz Saeed Meeting, Labels Case a ‘Betrayal’
JKLF chief claims 2006 Pakistan meeting was misrepresented to label him a terrorist as NIA seeks death penalty
New Delhi, Sept 19: Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik has told the Delhi High Court that following his 2006 meeting with Pakistan-based militant Hafiz Saeed, he personally briefed then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then National Security Advisor N.K. Narayanan. He claimed the meeting was later distorted to brand him a terrorist.
Malik, serving a life term in a terror-funding case, filed an affidavit asserting that the meeting was conducted at the request of India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) during his Pakistan visit for earthquake relief work. He called the subsequent framing of the meeting a “classic betrayal.”
He alleged that after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, the 2006 meeting was misrepresented to justify invoking the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against him, despite his transparent reporting to India’s top leadership.
In a striking declaration, Malik stated that he is prepared to face the death penalty if imposed, comparing himself to Kashmiri separatist Maqbool Bhat, executed in 1984. “If my death finally gives respite to some, let it be so. I shall go with a smile but with pride and honour,” he wrote.
The affidavit was submitted as the Delhi High Court hears the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) appeal seeking to enhance Malik’s life term to a death sentence in a 2017 terror-funding case. The bench has directed Malik to file his reply by November 10.
Malik had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2022 under UAPA after pleading guilty, with the trial court ruling that the case did not qualify as “rarest of rare” for the death penalty. The NIA had accused Malik, along with Hafiz Saeed, Syed Salahuddin, and Shabbir Shah, of conspiring with Pakistan-based groups to fuel unrest in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, a UAPA tribunal recently extended the ban on JKLF for five more years, emphasizing zero tolerance toward organizations advocating secessionism.
