Murder, terror funding, hawala, money laundering: The unending list of crimes by Yasin Malik

New Delhi, Mar 21: A court of the National Investigation Agency has ordered framing charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief, Hafiz Saeed, Kashmir separatist leaders including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam and Hizbul Mujahideen head, Syed Salahuddin. The case on hand relates to terror funding.

The NIA judge, Praveen Singh said that the above analysis reflects that the statements of witnesses and documentary evidence have 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.

While all the above mentioned persons have played a huge role in furthering terror in Jammu and Kashmir, one of the most notorious among them is Yasin Malik. The several documents on Malik seen by OneIndia suggest that the cases against him are not ordinary in nature. They range from acts of terror, causing unrest and also murder of Indian Air Force officials.

Malik's name also cropped in terror funding cases since 1995. In 2019, the Centre had banned his outfit, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Malik is also facing cases relating to the kidnapping of Rubaiya Saeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in 1989, and the killing of four IAF personnel in 1990.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case on May 30, 2017 against separatist and secessionist leaders, including unknown members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and other outfits and gangs.

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala transactions, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in J&K and for causing disruption in the Valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India, the probe agency said in the FIR.

Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front for the banned LeT, has also been named as an accused in the FIR.

Yasin Malik and ten others were chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the Terrorist and Disruptive Act. The CBI named Yasin Malik as the main accused in both these cases.

The JKLF is also responsible for illegal funnelling of funds for fomenting terrorism. The JKLF is actively involved in raising of funds and its distribution to Hurriyat cadres and stone-pelters to fuel unrest in Kashmir Valley as well as for subversive activities.

A total of 37 FIRs have been registered by the J&K Police against JKLF and two cases, including that of murder of IAF personnel, were registered by the CBI.

The organisation was also involved in the kidnapping and killing of Ravindra Mhatre, an Indian diplomat posted the UK, in 1984. A week later, India executed Maqbool Bhat, a JKLF activist, who had been sentenced to death.