Court to pronounce quantum of sentence for Yasin Malik; NIA seeks death penalty

In a huge development, a special NIA court will pronounce the quantum of sentence for Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik at 3.30 pm on Wednesday. It had convicted him on May 19 after he pleaded guilty to all charges. While the NIA sought the maximum punishment, i.e death penalty, amicus curiae Akhand Pratap Singh urged the court to award him minimum punishment considering that he voluntarily pleaded guilty. 

Addressing the court, Malik stated that he left the quantum of sentence to the discretion of the court. Arrested in connection with this case on April 10, 2019, he is currently lodged in the Tihar jail. He is also facing trial in cases pertaining to the kidnapping of late PDP founder and ex-J&K CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter Rubaiya Sayeed and the killing of four IAF personnel in 1990. 

Conviction in terror funding case

The special NIA court's judgment came on a case registered by the NIA in 2017. The central agency highlighted that Malik had formed the Joint Resistance Leadership along with Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq in 2016 to support the cause of J&K's secession from India. It alleged that the secessionists were mobilizing from all possible sources including the Hawala network to fuel unrest and support the terrorist activities in J&K. Maintaining that Malik had played a key role in orchestrating protests, it cited his Facebook chat to show that stone-pelting incidents were a part of a well-planned conspiracy.

The NIA also pointed out that the JKLF chief had set up an elaborate mechanism across the world to raise funds for carrying out terrorist and other unlawful activities in the name of a "freedom struggle". It mentioned that several incriminating material including protest calendars, a copy of terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen's letterhead and electronic items were seized from his house during a raid on February 26, 2019. According to the agency, Malik had a close association with Lashkar-e-Taiba as well which was evident from an email exchange.

Several others such as Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, his close aide Ayaz Akbar, businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali; Peer Saifullah, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar. They have all been charged under Sections 120B (Punishment for criminal conspiracy), 121 (Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India), 121A and 124A of the IPC and Sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Since Yasin Malik's conviction, Pakistan leaders ranging from PM Shehbaz Sharif to Imran Khan have denounced the verdict and demanded his release.