Srinagar
The illegally detained Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik has announced to go on ‘a fast until death’ from 1st April 2020 against the authoritarian attitude of India.
Muhammad Yasin Malik in a statement released by his family in Srinagar, today, said that the Indian government had made a pledge with him that he would be provided with a genuine political space and efforts would be made for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through a meaningful dialogue process. However, he added that India had reneged from this pledge. Muhammad Yasin Malik pointed out that besides Indian officials, many international diplomats were also on board for pursuing the idea behind the pledge.
The JKLF Chairman said, the cases against him are politically motivated and the prejudice of the TADA court judge hearing a case against him was evident by his attitude. Muhammad Yasin Malik maintained that he had every legal right to be presented physically before the court but the Judge and the Central Bureau of Investigation at the behest of the Indian government did not allow it. He said he was presented through a video link, where he was neither able to hear the arguments of lawyers, nor was allowed to speak. He added that he had already withdrawn his counsel.
Muhammad Yasin Malik, who is detained in Delhi’s Tihar jail, deplored that the judge was not ready to listen to him, and was behaving like a prosecuting or police officer. He went on to add that whenever he tried to speak, the judge muted the volume or went offline, which showed his bias and prejudice against him and his friends.
The full text of the statement of Muhammad Yasin Malik is as follows:- “Ladies and gentlemen: With due respect, I was arrested in 1986 when I was a 12th class student on a charge of publishing stickers of independent Kashmir. I was sent to red sixteen-interrogation centre for 15 days and then three months in police lock-up. When I was released, I formed a student organisation, namely Islamic Students League. It was the most famous student organisation in Kashmir.
In the year 1986, a political forum came into existence in Jammu and Kashmir namely Muslim United Front (MUF). It was a forum of different religious, political and social organisations. MUF invited Islamic Students League to become constituent of this forum and we accepted this invitation. I was chosen to represent our organisation in the executive council of Muslim United Front (MUF). J&K Assembly elections were scheduled In March 1987. In executive meeting of Muslim United Front, there was a debate about contesting in these elections. MUF decided that in case of winning these elections, it will bring a resolution in JK Assembly for resolution of the Kashmir dispute. ISL told MUF, that though it was ready to support MUF in elections, but will not field any candidate to contest. ISL supported MUF election campaign and people of Jammu Kashmir in general voted for it but on the result date, the winners were declared as losers, and the losers as the winners. An arrest spree was unleashed and I was arrested from the counting hall, sent to interrogation centre, tortured which gave me blood infection and as a result was shifted to The Police Hospital Srinagar. It was at the said hospital where I was diagnosed with a damaged heart valve. I along with hundreds of members was detained under black law, the Public Safety Act (PSA).
After our release from jail, we the followers of non-violence got convinced that there was no space for a non-violent democratic political movement in India.—KMS
