New Delhi: Separatist-terrorist leader Yasin Malik on Tuesday pleaded guilty to all the charges, including those under the stringent UAPA, before a Delhi court. The case is related to alleged terrorism and secessionist activities in the Kashmir valley in 2017.
Malik told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him, including section 16 (terrorist act) and section 17 (raising funds for terrorist acts).
Special Judge Praveen Singh will hear on May 19 the arguments regarding quantum of sentence for offences levelled against Malik, in which the maximum punishment is life imprisonment.
Yasin Malik is the chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, an outfit that was banned shortly after the Pulwama terror attack. He is in jail since 2019 as a part of the crackdown against the anti-India and secessionist elements in the Valley in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. He was later remanded to the NIA custody and was shifted to Delhi’s Tihar jail from Jammu’s Kot Balwal jail.
On March 16, a Delhi court had ordered framing charges against Malik and other Kashmiri separatist leaders under the anti-terror law as well as the Indian Penal Code sections.
“The analysis reflects that the statements of witnesses and documentary evidence have connected almost all the accused with each other and to a common object of secession, to the commonality of means they were to use, their close association to terrorist or terrorist organisations under the guiding hand and funding of Pakistani establishment,” the court had said while passing the order.
The National Investigation Agency has alleged that Malik and other separatist leaders “entered into a larger conspiracy for causing disruption in the Valley by way of pelting stones on security forces, systematically burning of schools, damage to public property and waging war against India”.
On Tuesday, the court also formally framed charges against other Kashmiri separatist leaders. These include Farooq Ahmed Dar, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam, Md Yusuf Shah, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Khan, Md Akbar Khanday, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Abdul Rashid Sheikh and Naval Kishore Kapoor.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin were also charge-sheeted in connection with the case.
