Separatist Yasin Malik ends hunger strike in Tihar jail

NEW DELHI: Yasin Malik, chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, who began his hunger strike in the Tihar Jail on July 22, ended his fasting after he was told that his demands/concerns have been forwarded to the senior authorities, as per the prison authorities. The Kashmiri separatist, who was lodged in jail number 7 of the Tihar prison, had alleged that his case was not being investigated properly.

As per the officials, Malik has deferred his hunger strike for a period of two months at the request of DG Prisons Sandeep Goel. "Malik was admitted to the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital on July 26 and was back in the jail on July 29," said the prison officials.

Malik, who was arrested shortly after the JKLF was banned in 2019, was on May 19 this year convicted by an NIA court in terror funding cases. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25. The NIA court while sentencing Malik also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh.

On July 15 this year, Rubaiya Sayeed, the sister of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti and daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, identified Malik in connection with her kidnapping by JKLF militants on December 8, 1989.

Rubaiya was abducted in Srinagar on December 8, 1989, and freed from captivity after five days on December 13 after the then V P Singh government at the Centre, released five terrorists in exchange. Malik is an accused in this case along with others. Apart from the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case, Malik is also facing charges in the case of the gunning down of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officials in January 1990 in Srinagar.