JKLF’s Yasin Malik gets 2 life terms in terror funding case

NEW DELHI: A special NIA court in Delhi on Wednesday handed concurrent life terms to Kashmiri separatist and JKLF chief Yasin Malik for funding terror in J&K and waging war against the state, rejecting his contention that he had adhered to the Gandhian principle of non-violence and spearheaded "a peaceful struggle" since giving up armed militancy in 1994.

"The convict may have given up the gun, but he never expressed any regret for the violence he committed prior to the year 1994," special judge Parveen Singh said in his 20-page order.

"When he claimed to have given up the path of violence after 1994, the government of India took it at face value and gave him an opportunity to reform, and, in good faith, tried to engage in a meaningful dialogue with him, and, as admitted by him, gave him every platform to express his opinion."

Malik betrayed "the good intentions of the government" and "took a different path to orchestrate violence in the guise of political struggle", the special judge said, mentioning how funds mobilised by the JKLF chairman "were used to create unrest" in the form of "paid terror activities of stone-pelting and arson on a mass scale". "Therefore, in my considered opinion, it is high time that it is recognised that terror funding is one of the gravest offences and has to be punished more severely," the judge observed.