Separatist Hurriyat, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and historian Rajmohan Gandhi have expressed concern over the treatment meted out to JKLF chief Yasin Malik, who was shifted to a Delhi hospital as his hunger strike at the Tihar Jail entered the sixth day on Wednesday.
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A Hurriyat spokesman said the separatist amalgam was “seriously concerned over the media reports regarding the deteriorating health and safety of Malik”.
The spokesman said political prisoners of Jammu and Kashmir were being subjected to revenge for their political beliefs. “All norms of judicial justice and redressal to them were being ignored. Repression on the basis of political ideologies and claims of establishing peace through detentions, bans, censorship and sanctions can neither change the facts nor sentiments,” the spokesman said.
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File picture of JKLF Leader Yasin Malik being produced amid heavy security at the Patiala House Courts in New Delhi on May 25, 2022 | Photo Credit: R. V. Moorthy
‘Dialogue inevitable’
Mirwaiz’s Hurriyat underlined that “ultimately dialogue and negotiation between all the parties are the only way to resolve the long-standing Kashmir issue on a permanent basis”. “Dialogue is inevitable for the establishment of stability and lasting peace and security in the region,” the spokesman said.
The Hurriyat has demanded release of all political prisoners, including Malik and the Mirwaiz.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gandhi, in a blog on Malik, said, “Questions are inescapable. Is it sound to reopen cases that were closed for 25 years or more by successive governments that negotiated with Malik, including governments led by the BJP’s Vajpayee and by Modi in his first term?”
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Chennai: 21-01-2020, For City: Rajmohan Gandhi Lecture on ‘Building a Non-Violent Society Gandhian Paradigms' at Loyola College Bertram Hall, Nungambakkam. Photo: M. Karunakaran | Photo Credit: KARUNAKARAN M
Mr. Gandhi further said, “Does the present government have no desire whatsoever to attract even minimal goodwill from the Kashmiri people? Letting Malik die from a fast, or sentencing him to death after flawed trials, will only give Yasin Malik and Kashmiri separatism a long and robust future life.”
Terror funding case
Malik, who was arrested and his organisation banned in 2019, was convicted in a terror funding case earlier this year. He was awarded life imprisonment by a Delhi court.
Besides, charges have also been framed against Malik in two separate cases, including the killing of four Indian Air Force officials in 1990 and kidnapping of former Union Home Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya Sayeed in 1989. Malik, who was a JKLF ‘commander’ in the 1990s, declared a ceasefire in 1994 and had pledged to pursue non-violent means to achieve his political goal.