Successive governments engaged me for Kashmir Talks: Yasin Malik to Delhi HC
(source : ANI) ( Photo Credit : ani)
Yasin Malik’s Bold Claims in Court: From Peace Talks to Terror Charges
In a dramatic court filing, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yasin Malik has told the Delhi High Court that he’s no terrorist. Instead, he says six Indian governments, from VP Singh to Manmohan Singh, pulled him into secret peace efforts on the Kashmir issue. Malik, who’s serving a life sentence for a 2017 terror funding case, made these shocking revelations to fight back against the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) push for the death penalty.
Malik insists the Indian establishment twisted his peace meetings to paint him as a conspirator. He detailed how it all started in the early 2000s, when then-Intelligence Bureau (IB) Special Director Ajit Doval visited him in jail. Doval, now India’s National Security Advisor, shared the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s interest in starting a peace process in Kashmir. From there, Malik met top officials like IB Director Shyamal Dutta and NSA Brajesh Mishra, who urged him to back the Ramzan ceasefire.
He didn’t stop there. Malik reached out to political bigwigs, including Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and even Left party figures, to rally support for Vajpayee’s peace push. In 2002, he kicked off a massive signature drive across Jammu and Kashmir to push for non-violence and democracy. Over two and a half years, he collected a whopping 1.5 million signatures – a real testament to his efforts, he claims.
Fast forward to 2006: During a trip to Pakistan for earthquake relief, the IB asked Malik to chat with militant leaders like Hafiz Saeed. He says he did it to bolster peace talks and even briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and NSA NK Narayanan afterward. But Malik calls it a "classic betrayal" – those same meetings got spun against him, especially after the scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A in 2019. Now, they’re using it to slap him with charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), he alleges.
In his affidavit, Malik sounds ready for whatever comes. "If my death brings peace to some, so be it. I’ll face it with a smile, pride, and honor," he wrote, drawing parallels to Kashmiri leader Maqbool Bhat, hanged in 1984. Quoting Shakespeare, he added: "Be absolute for death; for either death or life shall be the sweeter." It’s a powerful stand from a man who’s turned his Kashmir struggle into a life-or-death narrative.
The Delhi High Court is now hearing the NIA’s appeal to upgrade Malik’s life term to capital punishment. The bench gave him until November 10 to respond. Back in 2022, a trial court sentenced him to life after he pleaded guilty under UAPA, ruling it wasn’t a "rarest of rare" case for the death penalty.
The NIA paints a darker picture, accusing Malik and others like Hafiz Saeed, Syed Salahuddin, and Shabbir Shah of teaming up with Pakistan-based groups to stir unrest in Kashmir. Just this year, a tribunal renewed the ban on JKLF for five more years, stressing zero tolerance for outfits pushing secessionism.
As the Kashmir conflict stays in the spotlight, Malik’s court battle keeps the debate alive – was he a peace broker or a terror plotter? The High Court will decide.
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