Move to seek death sentence for Yasin Malik flayed

LAHORE : Kashmir Diaspora Coalition (KDC) strongly condemns India’s National Investigation Agency's (NIA) politically motivated demand before the Delhi High Court, seeking death sentence for political prisoner Yasin Malik.

A spokesperson of Kashmiri body said here Saturday, members of the KDC board expressed deep concerns over the politically motivated developments on M Yasin Malik's illegal incarceration in Tihar jail. NIA has approached the Delhi High Court seeking to convert life imprisonment into the death penalty for a concocted ‘terror-funding’ case. Yasin Malik, one of Kashmir's most fearless, influential, and revered leaders, Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, has spent most of his life resisting Indian state violence, torture, and multiple jail sentences under what have been called India’s ‘Lawless Laws’ by human rights defenders.

Members of the Coalition (KDC) observed that NIA in Indian-Occupied Kashmir is increasingly trying to legitimise its brutal suppression of any form of resistance to the occupation of Kashmir. With the brazen custodial murders of Syed Ali Geelani and Asraf Sahrai, two prominent resistance leaders, India is continuing to silence any resistance to its illegal occupation of Kashmir by murdering yet another political leader/prisoner.

What is concerning is the exponential rise in political elimination in occupied Kashmir. Other jailed political leaders such as Masrat Alam, Asiya Andrabi, Qasim Faktoo, Shabir Shah, Nahida Nasreen, and many others, including members of the civil society, journalists, and civilians, including children are languishing in inhumane conditions in jails across India under the draconian neo-colonial laws, such as Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA) without due process and fair judicial trials.