Protest lodged with India over jailing of Hurriyat leader

Pakistan strongly condemned mala fide life sentencing of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik on Wednesday, issuing a strong demarche to India over its abhorrent attempts to defile the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination.

The country’s civil and military leadership also warned India that such oppressive tactics could not dampen the spirit of people of Kashmir in their just struggle against illegal Indian occupation. They said that life imprisonment for Malik would provide fresh impetus to the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle.

A special Indian court jailed the 56-year-old Malik on charges of “terrorism and funding acts of terror” on Wednesday. The court said that Malik “did not want any trial and therefore, he was ready to plead guilty”.

The Indian Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad was called to the Foreign Office on Wednesday and conveyed Pakistan’s strongest condemnation and rejection of the mala fide conviction and sentencing of Malik in a grossly suspicious and contrived case registered under the draconian laws.

According to a Foreign Office statement, the Indian diplomat was conveyed Pakistan’s strong indignation to “denial of fair trial and inhuman incarceration” of Malik in complete defiance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

“It was highlighted that by implicating him [Malik] in a concocted case and carrying out a bogus and one-sided trial, India has again misused the judiciary in the outrageous execution of political vendetta against the Kashmiri leadership,” the Foreign Office statement said.

The Foreign Office urged the international community to take cognisance of the worst human rights violations and the atrocities being perpetrated by India in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), and press India to fulfil its obligations under the international humanitarian law.

Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement that the life imprisonment for valiant freedom fighter Yasin Malik would provide a fresh impetus to Kashmiris’ struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination.

“Today is a black day for Indian democracy & its justice system. India can imprison Yasin Malik physically but it can never imprison idea of freedom he symbolizes,” the prime minister said in a tweet posted on his social media account.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the “unjust” sentencing of Malik in a “sham” trial, saying that “India can never silence Kashmiris’ voice for freedom and self-determination”. Pakistan, he wrote on Twitter, “will continue to provide all possible support” in the just struggle of the Kashmiri people.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) also condemned the life sentence awarded to Yasin Malik on fabricated charges. “Such oppressive tactics cannot dampen the spirit of people of Kashmir in their just struggle against illegal Indian occupation. We stand with them in quest for self-determination as per UNSCRs,” the director general of ISPR Maj-Gen Babar Iftikhar said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, former president Asif Ali Zardari said in a separate statement: “Yasin Malik is the hero of struggle for the independence of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Imprisonment and torture could not break the resolve of freedom fighter Yasin Malik.”

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)