Gave up arms, I’m a Gandhian now: Separatist Yasin Malik to tribunal

Separatist leader Yasin Malik told an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) tribunal that he has embraced non-violence and given up armed struggle since 1994. Malik, founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front-Yasin (JKLF-Y), said in his affidavit that he now follows the “Gandhian way of resistance.”
“I gave up arms, I’m a Gandhian now,” he stated in his affidavit as the tribunal reviewed the ban on JKLF-Y, which spearheaded armed militancy in the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s.
Malik explained that his decision to abandon violence was aimed at promoting a “united, independent Kashmir” but through peaceful means.
The UAPA tribunal, in its recent order published in the official gazette, declared JKLF-Y an “unlawful organisation” for the next five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The ruling detailed the outfit’s links to top political and government figures since 1994 and questioned its legitimacy.
Malik, serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail after being convicted in a terror funding case, is a prime accused in the 1990 killing of four Indian Air Force personnel in Rawalpora, Srinagar. Earlier this year, witnesses identified Malik as the main shooter in the case.
In addition to this, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2022 in a terror financing case investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
In his affidavit, Malik claimed that in the early 1990s, various state officials assured him that the Kashmir dispute would be resolved through “meaningful dialogue.” He said he was promised that if he initiated a unilateral ceasefire, all charges against him and JKLF-Y members would be dropped.
However, the Centre, in its ban notification issued on March 15, 2024, and through statements from officers involved in cases against JKLF-Y, argued that despite giving up armed resistance in 1994, Malik continued to support and sustain terrorism.