Jailed Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik has started a hunger strike in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, seeking a fair trial in his case, prison officials said. The chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who has been sentenced to life in a terror financing case, has filed a personal appearance request in two cases with the central government. The separatist leader is facing trial in cases related to the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and the 1990 killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officials.
Malik, 56, has asked the government to physically appear before a special TADA (Prevention and Violent Activities Act) court. On 19 May, he was earlier convicted by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in terror financing cases and sentenced to life imprisonment on 25 May. Malik was found guilty by the court under several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).A statement quoting JKLF spokesman Muhammad Rafiq Dar said a meeting of the organisation’s “supreme council” had termed Malik’s non-presentation in the courts as “illegal, inhumane and undemocratic”.Dar said Malik had initially decided to go on hunger strike from July 12, a day before the last court hearing, which he postponed by 10 days on the request of jail authorities to give them some time to discuss the issue with the higher authorities concerned.
