BJP ‘friendlies’ in Kashmir view Yasin Malik as ‘innocent, political prisoner’

Srinagar :BJP’s past political allies, some of whom are also widely perceived to be the party’s potential allies in the future in Jammu and Kashmir, have started building up a narrative of victimhood for the outlawed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front’s detained Chairman, Yasin Malik. Even as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has moved the Delhi High Court, seeking death sentence for Malik in a terror-funding case, a number of the Kashmiri mainstream politicians have demanded “review and reconsideration” of the life imprisonment already awarded to the JKLF chief.
The NIA has challenged the trial court’s sentence of life imprisonment and sought capital punishment for Malik in a terror-funding and terror activity related case in which the JKLF chief pleaded guilty. He was the only one among over a dozen separatist leaders and activists who pleaded guilty and was convicted. The outlawed Dukhtaraan-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi with one of her party associates was acquitted. However, the NIA went on appeal to the Delhi High Court and blocked Andrabi’s release.
Months later, the NIA sought the death penalty for Malik, claiming that he was involved in serious offences.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is simultaneously pursuing two high profile cases—the kidnapping of Aubaiya Sayeed on 8 December 1989 and the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel on 25 January 1990—in a TADA court in Jammu against Malik and other accused. In both cases, charges have been framed against the accused and the trial is going on.
“In a democracy like India where even the assassins of a PM were pardoned, the case of a political prisoner like Yasin Malik must be reviewed & reconsidered. The new political ikhwan gleefully supporting his hanging are a grave threat to our collective rights”, Mehbooba Mufti, President of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Chief Minister of the BJP-PDP Government in 2016-19, tweeted.
Mufti in fact made her demand of “reconsideration” of Malik’s sentence public while quote retweeting the Apni Party President Altaf Bukhari’s tweet about Malik. Bukhari, who functioned as Minister of Education and Finance in the BJP-PDP Government and is known for his proximity to the top BJP leadership, had started to build up a narrative against Malik but soon after Mufti’s veiled attack on him, he deleted his tweet.
“NIA’s plea demanding death penalty for Yasin Malik highlights the urgency to address militant fundings in Jammu and Kashmir. We must ensure justice prevails and deterrent measures should be taken against those who are trying to threaten our nation’s security”, Bukhari tweeted against Malik at 01:45 pm on 27 May.
In just a few hours, Bukhari made a volte face and tweeted in Malik’s favour while deleting his earlier tweet. “NIA is trying to be more hasty by approaching Delhi’s High Court for the 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 dark phase after removal of 370 & statehood”, Bukhari tweeted at 9:58 pm on 27 May.
The trend was in fact set by the Apni Party leader and Mayor of Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Junaid Azim Mattu, who tweeted at 2:06 pm on 27 May: “I disagree with Yasin Malik’s ideology and have stood to unequivocally oppose his views and his past all my life with an unwavering conviction. However, seeking a death penalty for him doesn’t help anyone BUT his ideological narrative. Justice isn’t a path taken vindictively”. He asserted that the NIA was going ‘vindictive’ against Malik.
Mattu has been an important tool of the government machinery in the last 5 years. In 2018, when the National Conference and the PDP boycotted the Urban Local Body elections, Mattu won from two wards on a ticket of the Peoples Conference, apparently with the support of the government and the BJP. With the same support, he became the Mayor. Even as the elected councillors are affiliated to different parties, the overall control of the members lies with the BJP. Then Governor Satya Pal Malik had indicated days before the polling that a young man educated in the United States of America was likely to become the Mayor.
Bukhari is understood to have deleted his tweet and changed his tag about Malik after Mattu’s tweet. Mehbooba went to the extent of labelling the politicians like Bukhari as ‘Ikhwanis’—the counterinsurgent force of KukkaParray and some other pro-India guerrilla leaders who decimated the Pakistan-sponsored militancy in Kashmir in 1995-2002.
Interestingly, Malik, according to the CBI investigation and charge sheet, is the main accused in the kidnapping of Mehbooba Mufti’s sister and the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter, Dr Rubaiya Sayeed. Rubaiya was kidnapped on 8 December and released in exchange for 5 JKLF militants on 13 December 1989.
Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone too warned against the NIA’s move. “The NIA plea on Yasin Malik is dangerous. It is a humble plea. Let you not be misled by fair weather Kashmir experts. Please, every situation has a short-term and a long-term. Let the short-term enforced calm not blind you to the possible long-term turbulence,” Lone said. He said Malik faced 9 FIRs before picking up a gun. “All FIRs pertaining to elections but given an anti-national form and shape,” Lone said, while referring to the allegedly rigged 1987 elections.
“Let us Kashmiris live in peace. No more experiments. We need oxygen from the rest of the country as we are gasping for political breath. We cannot afford Kashmir being the oxygen for the political landscape in the rest of the country. Reminds me of Afzal Guru and Congress’s hurry to execute him,” Lone added.
While the BJP’s perceived friendlies went on a fresh course of what many call ‘competitive separatism’, there was immediately no reaction from the Congress party and the National Conference leaders and former Chief Ministers Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah.

Updated On 5/30/2023 1:40:45 AM

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