Yasin Malik denies involvement in KP murder case

SRINAGAR: Jailed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik has denied involvement in the murder of Kashmiri Pandit woman Sarla Bhat and submitted a 25-page affidavit before a special court here, pleading not guilty while refusing to contest the trial and seeking capital punishment.

Malik, 60, who is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, claimed the charges against him were a “subsequent invention” and described the prosecution’s case as a fabricated narrative developed decades after the 1990 killing to falsely implicate him.

The affidavit was submitted after the State Investigating Agency (SIA) filed a chargesheet on June 29 in connection with Bhat’s murder on April 19, 1990. Malik said he had decided not to contest the proceedings further, but clarified that his decision should not be treated as an admission of guilt or acceptance of any prosecution allegation.

“Considering my personal circumstances and after deep reflection, I have decided not to contest the trial proceedings further,” Malik stated, while requesting capital punishment.

He claimed that in April 1990 he had been critically injured after falling from a building during a BSF raid at Narwara and had remained in a coma. He further claimed that news reports, including Doordarshan, had twice reported him dead.

“It is incomprehensible how a person who was unconscious, fighting for his own survival and widely believed to be dead could have participated in, directed or orchestrated the commission of the offence,” he said.

Malik also rejected the allegation that Bhat was killed because she was suspected of providing information to security forces. He described her as an innocent civilian and denied that she had any role in the BSF operation.

According to Malik, three SIA officers questioned him in Tihar before the chargesheet was filed regarding a handwritten JKLF note allegedly recovered from the crime scene, which purportedly claimed responsibility and named Javaid Mir, Sheikh Abdul Hamid and Mohammad Yasin Malik.

He questioned why none of the three named individuals was charged in the case for more than three decades if the document had genuinely been recovered at the time. Malik also pointed out that despite his arrest in August 1990 and the registration of nearly two dozen TADA cases against him, he was never named as an accused in the Bhat murder.

He similarly argued that no case was registered against the other two individuals named in the alleged note, despite their arrests in the 1990s.

Malik termed the prosecution case “implausible, wholly false and unsupported by evidence” and alleged that his implication was driven by present political circumstances. He also denied ever advocating or resorting to violence against individuals.

In a separate personal section of the affidavit, Malik announced his decision to separate from his wife, Mushaal Hussein Mullick, citing his prolonged incarceration and lack of communication with his family. He said he had taken the decision after performing Istikhara and did not want his wife to spend the rest of her life burdened by his circumstances.

Malik also wrote a message to his 13-year-old daughter, Raziya Sultana, saying he had not heard from her for eight years. He concluded the affidavit with verses from Faiz Ahmed Faiz and passages from the Quran, describing it as his “final statement of conscience”.

He said he bore no hatred or desire for revenge against anyone and left every accusation, decision and perceived injustice to the judgment of Almighty Allah.