Yaseen Malik starts hunger strike in Tihar jail, demands fair trial

|HT|

Jailed Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik has begun a hunger strike in Delhi's Tihar Jail seeking a fair trial in his case, said prison officials. The chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was convicted by a court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in terror funding cases on May 19 and sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25.

Malik was found guilty by the court under Section 16, Section 17, Section 18, and Section 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The separatist leader is facing in two other cases – the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officials in 1990. Malik had moved an application with the central government seeking personal appearance in the two cases. A statement quoting JKLF spokesperson Muhammad Rafiq Dar said a meeting of the “supreme council” of the outfit termed the non-presentation of Malik in courts as “illegal, inhumane and undemocratic”.

Dar said Malik had originally decided to begin the hunger strike from July 12, a day before the last court hearing, which he postponed for 10 days on the request of jail authorities so that they had some time to take up the issue with concerned higher authorities.

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