New Delhi: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court Thursday convicted Jammu and Kashmir separatist leader Yasin Malik after he pled guilty in a terror-funding case.
The court said arguments on the quantum of sentence would be heard on 25 May. Malik may get a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
On March 16, the NIA court ordered charges against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, and Kashmiri separatist leaders including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam and others. They were charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for terrorist and secessionist activities that “disturbed Jammu and Kashmir”.
The court also ordered framing of charges against Kashmiri politician and former MLA Rashid Engineer, businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Bitta Karate, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Avatar Ahmad Shah, Naeem Khan, Bashir Ahmed Bhat, alias Peer Saifullah, and several others under various sections of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code. The charges were for criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country, and unlawful activity among others.
NIA special Judge Praveen Singh noted that the “statements of witnesses and documentary evidence connected almost all the accused with each other and to a common object of secession, to the commonality of means they were to use, their close association to terrorist/terrorist organisations under the guiding hand and funding of Pakistani establishment”.
Witnesses had linked Malik to the secessionist group, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, formed during the 1993 phase of the Kashmir militancy.
According to the NIA, various terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and the Jaish-e- Mohammed perpetrated violence in the Valley with the help of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.
Also read: ‘Ready to face whatever’s next’: What Yasin Malik said about guilty plea in terror-funding case