Hurriyat, Apni Party oppose NIA’s plea for death penalty to Yasin Malik

The Hurriyat Conference called the NIA’s plea to award death penalty for Yasin Malik as deeply disturbing.

The Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Sunday called the National Investigation Agency (NIA)’s plea seeking death penalty for separatist leader Yasin Malik as “deeply disturbing” while Apni Party leader Altaf Bukhari termed the agency’s approach “hasty”.

Yasin Malik. (File)

On Friday, the NIA approached the Delhi high court seeking death penalty for separatist leader and chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Yasin Malik, who was awarded life term by a trial court in a terror funding case. A bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh will hear the matter on May 29.

All Parties Hurriyat Conference, in a statement, said that the central investigative agency seeking ‘death penalty for Yasin Malik is deeply disturbing for the people of the J&K’.

“Unfortunately one after other such directives and decrees are brought in by the authorities -who claim peace and development as their agenda, which seem a deliberate attempt to provoke and intimidate people and add to their concerns and fears,” the Hurriyat said.

“NIA is trying to be more hasty by approaching Delhi’s high court for death penalty in case of Yasin Malik. Everyone deserves justice, we want justice, no innocent should be trapped and no guilty should be spared. Yasin Malik’s case should be re-investigated. As we are already suffering from a dark phase after the removal of 370 & statehood,” Bukhari said in a tweet.

Earlier, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti and chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference, Sajad Lone, also disagreed with NIA’s decision.

On May 24, 2022, a trial court awarded life imprisonment to Malik after holding him guilty of various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Malik was convicted after pleading guilty to charges related to terror funding, spreading terrorism and secessionist activities in Kashmir in 2017.