Top Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik sentenced to life in prison

Former militant turned pro-independence leader jailed over involvement in terrorist acts and criminal conspiracy

Police escort Yasin Malik (C) to a holding area after a sentencing hearing at Patiala house court in New Delhi on Wednesday. AFP

A New Delhi court on Wednesday sentenced a top Kashmiri pro-independence leader to life imprisonment for funding terrorist activities and waging war against India in Kashmir.

Yasin Malik, a former militant commander-turned-pro-independence politician was arrested in April 2019 by India's National Investigation Agency under anti-terrorism laws.

Malik, 56, who heads his faction of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, was last week convicted of participating in and funding terrorist acts and involvement in criminal conspiracy.

The court handed Malik two life sentences, four 10-year jail terms and one five-year sentence, all to be served concurrently, NIA judge Praveen Singh said.

The court also imposed a fine of more than one million rupees ($12,890).

Malik will remain in Delhi’s high-security Tihar jail.

The NIA had demanded the death penalty for Malik for “waging war against the government of India". However, his defence counsel had asked for life imprisonment.

Malik earlier said in court: "I have been doing non-violent politics in Kashmir ever since [1994].

Yasin Malik was one of the first Kashmiris to take up arms against New Delhi’s rule but later claimed to have renounced violence. EPA

Several parts of Kashmir’s Srinagar witnessed a shutdown and sporadic street clashes between his supporters and government troops after the sentencing.

Authorities had posted extra police to parts of Srinagar, including in the commercial centre of Lal Chowk where Malik's family resides.

In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest against the sentencing.

Malik is regarded as one of the top anti-India politicians in the disputed Kashmir region where a full-fledged armed rebellion against New Delhi began in the late 1980s.

Many residents of the disputed region have been demanding an independent country or a merger with Pakistan, which controls part of the territory.

Malik was a political activist in the mid-1980s but turned away from mainstream politics after the mass rigging of local elections by the ruling party and subsequent police violence against political opponents in 1987.

He became one of the first Kashmiris to take up arms against New Delhi’s rule after crossing over to Pakistan-administered Kashmir in 1988.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Srinagar to protest against the sentencing of Yasin Malik on Wednesday. AFP

Protesters clash with Indian police during a protest against the sentencing of Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. EPA

Malik, the former militant commander-turned-pro-independence politician, was given two life sentences, four 10-year jail terms and one five-year sentence, all to be served concurrently. Reuters

He was convicted of participating in and funding terrorist acts and involvement in criminal conspiracy. Reuters

Several parts of Srinagar in Kashmir were locked down, after sporadic street clashes between Malik's supporters and government troops erupted when news of the sentencing broke. EPA

Police escort pro-independence party Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik to Patiala house court in New Delhi, where he was sentenced. AFP

Malik briefly headed the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, the oldest Kashmiri armed group, but was arrested and sentenced to four years in jail in 1990.

After his release, he denounced the armed campaign and joined pro-freedom politics in 1994.

Malik had claimed he was shunning violence and sought to emulate Indian independence figure Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent struggle to liberate Kashmir.

He was instrumental in launching a mass campaign across the disputed Himalayan valley, collecting 1.5 million signatures to press India for a UN-mandated plebiscite in the region.

Malik was sentenced to a year in prison in 2002 over his anti-India activities.

After his release, in 2006 Malik joined peace talks with the Indian government for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute and held an in-person meeting with then prime minister Manmohan Singh.

Protesters took to the streets of Srinagar in Indian controlled Kashmir on Wednesday. AP

Malik became a figurehead of the protests that rocked the region between 2008 and 2016.

Hundreds of demonstrators were killed during months of street rallies in 2008, 2010 and 2016 in which hundreds of thousands of people demanded Kashmir’s freedom from India.

The NIA had filed a case against Malik and other politicians in 2017 but intensified a purge of anti-India figures in 2018 after New Delhi imposed direct rule over the valley.

Malik and dozens of other anti-India political figures were arrested in early 2019 for fomenting and funding street protests.

He is separately on trial for the killing of four Indian Air Force members in 1990 during a militant attack in Srinagar.