The World Kashmir Awareness Forum has called upon the United Nations and other world organizations to shed their protracted silence and earnestly impress upon the Indian government to let international standards of justice prevail and free Kashmiri Hurriyat leader and Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Mohammad Yasin Malik.
World Kashmir Awareness Forum in a statement issued in Washington said, “The International community must take cognizance of that historical behavior of India. By eliminating peace-loving leaders like Yasin Malik, the Indian regime is closing any avenues of peace in the region and pushing the youth of Kashmir towards actions that can be detrimental to the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir conflict.”
Yasin Malik, currently lodged in Tihar jail, New Delhi, was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Indian court on May 25, 2022.
“He wanted Independence for his beloved homeland from India. He wanted India to honor the pledge she gave to the world community and to the United Nations that the people of Jammu & Kashmir shall have the right to self-determination to determine their future and destiny,” the statement added.
Giving background of the factors, which led Muhammad Yasin Malik to spearhead a freedom movement against India, the WKAF said, “It is universally accepted that the Indian machinery grossly rigged the 1987 elections to install the puppet Farooq Abdullah government in Kashmir. There was a hue and cry across the Valley but who would listen? That became the catalyst for a number of Kashmiris, including Yasin Malik and his close associates to start an uprising against the Indian occupation.”
In 2019 Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) headed by Malik was banned and he was arrested. The Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) accused Malik and several others of receiving foreign funding. “What happened inside the court – no one knows for sure. There was no open trial. Almost 50 anonymous witnesses, some with code names of ‘Jack’, ‘John’ and ‘Alpha’, were apparently presented in the opaque court,” the statement said.
At the trial, Malik protested the charges against him and insisted that he was a freedom fighter. As reported by Associated Press, Malik stated that “Terrorism-related charges leveled against me are concocted, fabricated and politically motivated.” AP further reported that Malik told the judge, “If seeking Azadi (freedom) is a crime, then I am ready to accept this crime and its consequences.”
Although Yasin Malik has been given the inhumane and cruel sentence for life, worse may be on the cards, given India’s previous record in Kashmir, the WKAF statement feared.—KMS
