The anti-terrorism agency of India has again appealed for the enactment of the death penalty on the Kashmiri independence leader, Muhammad Yasin Malik.
This demand came after he was previously sentenced to life imprisonment.
Yasin Malik, 57, is the leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and has been convicted of a life imprisonment sentence in a case related to terror funding. This verdict was passed after Malik’s refusal to accept a lawyer appointed by the government or to personally defend himself against the accusations.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had previously filed a petition for the death penalty; however, the court rejected their demand, stating that capital punishment is restrained for crimes that deeply “shock the collective consciousness” of society.
A senior security official in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir has told AFP that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed another petition again with the High Court in New Delhi, reiterating their demand for the death penalty to be imposed on Muhammad Yasin Malik.
According to the legal news website Bar and Bench, the hearing for the petition is scheduled to take place on Monday.
Yasin Malik faced multiple detentions throughout his life, spending a total of 14 years in prison. He claimed to have consistently been subjected to torture. In 2018, he was finally arrested, months before the abrogation of the occupied region’s special status by New Delhi. This act was followed by a period of lockdown and communication blockade, lasting several months.
