Indian court awards life in jail to Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik

NEW DELHI: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has awarded life in jail to Kashmiri freedom fighter Yasin Malik in a terror funding case, the country's media reported Wednesday.

The NIA had sought the death penalty for the Kashmiri leader and chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), but the court awarded him two life imprisonments, Times of India reported.

The NIA court handed down two life sentences and five 10-year terms of rigorous imprisonment, which will run concurrently. Moreover, a penalty of ₹1million has also been slapped on the Kashmiri leader, according to NDTV.

The Hurriyat leader was convicted in the terror-funding case last week after he pleaded guilty to all the charges last Tuesday, including the ones under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Yasin had refused to contest the charges, including Section 16 (terrorist act), Section 17 (raising funds for a terrorist act), Section 18 (conspiracy to commit a terrorist act) and Section 20 (being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation) of the UAPA and Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code.

The Indian government arrested the Hurriyat leader in 2019, the same year when the special status of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir was revoked.

Mushaal Hussein Mullick, Malik's wife, temred the sentence handed down to her husband illegitimate.

"Verdict in minutes by Indian kangaroo court," she said on Twitter. "The iconic leader will never surrender."

Meanwhile, police fired tear gas and pellets to disperse protesters outside the resistance leader's residence in IOJK's Srinagar.