Mehbooba Mufti urges HM Amit Shah to take humanitarian view of case against Yasin Malik

Srinagar, Sep 19: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said she has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take a humanitarian view of the case against the banned JKLF supremo Mohammad Yasin Malik as he had renounced violence and chosen the path of political engagement.

Malik was arrested in February 2019 and is facing several cases, including those related to the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, attack on IAF personnel at Rawalpora in 1990 and 2017 terror-funding case registered by the NIA. Malik had claimed to be a patient of “serious cardiac and kidney ailments”, currently facing a “life and death situation”.

"I've written to Shri Amit Shah ji to view Yasin Malik's case through a humanitarian lens. While I differ with his political ideology, one cannot ignore the courage it took him to renounce violence and choose the path of political engagement and non-violent dissent," Mufti said in a post on X.

She also posted the letter written to the home minister on her X handle. "I earnestly appeal to your esteemed office for a compassionate and urgent review of the case of Yasin Malik, a name that once symbolised resistance, later chose restraint and now remains silenced behind prison walls," the former Chief Minister wrote in the letter to Shah.

Mufti said Malik underwent profound transformation as he placed trust in the state by renouncing violence. "Yasin Malik's journey is no secret to the Indian state. In 1994, he took a courageous and rare decision to lay down arms and embrace political, non-violent means to pursue change. "According to his (Malik's) sworn affidavits (before the Delhi High Court), this shift was neither unilateral nor impulsive but encouraged and facilitated through back channel understanding with Indian agencies," the PDP president said.