Yasin Malik, lodged in Delhi's Tihar, ends hunger strike after 10 days

New Delhi, Aug 02: Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, who began his hunger strike in the Tihar Jail on July 22, ended his fasting after he was told that his demands/concerns have been forwarded to the senior authorities, as per the prison authorities.

Malik began an indefinite hunger strike on July 22 after the Centre did not respond to his plea that he be allowed to physically appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case in which he is an accused. The 56-year-old chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) is serving a life sentence in a terror-funding case.

As per the officials, Malik has deferred his hunger strike for a period of two months at the request of DG Prisons Sandeep Goel.

The DG has conveyed to Malik that the demands raised by him have been sent to the authorities concerned and he will be informed of the decision on the same, said a senior jail official.

"Malik was admitted to the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital on July 26 and was back in the jail on July 29," said the prison officials.

Malik, who was arrested shortly after the JKLF was banned in 2019, was on May 19 this year convicted by an NIA court in terror funding cases. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25. The NIA court while sentencing Malik also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh.

On July 15 this year, Rubaiya Sayeed, the sister of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti and daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, identified Malik in connection with her kidnapping by JKLF militants on December 8, 1989.Rubaiya was abducted in Srinagar on December 8, 1989, and freed from captivity after five days on December 13 after the then V P Singh government at the Centre, released five terrorists in exchange.

Malik is an accused in this case along with others. Apart from the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case, Malik is also facing charges in the case of the gunning down of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officials in January 1990 in Srinagar.