ISLAMABAD: Mushaal Hussein Mullick, wife of Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, on Sunday urged the government and international community to get her freedom fighter husband, who is in an Indian prison for the last eight years, released.

“We fear for his life. We fear that in the next week the Indian government will hand down death penalty or life imprisonment to my husband who was peacefully struggling for the right of self-determination in India-held Kashmir,” Ms Malik said in a press conference at the Press Information Department (PID). Her daughter, Razia Sultana, was sitting beside her holding her father’s picture.

Yasin Malik has been in detention in a death cell for the last three years now; the same cell where Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt were kept before their execution by the Indian government, Mushaal Malik said.

She said Indian propagandists portrayed Yasin Malik and Muslims as villains to create a religious divide, adding that her husband was leading the freedom struggle in India-held Kashmir, just like Gandhi and Bhagat Singh did.

Mushaal fears Indian govt will hand down death penalty

She appealed to the human rights council of the United Nations and to the UN secretary general to remind India of its international commitments of ensuring that political activists, prisoners and grieving Kashmiri families are given their rights.

“We would like the government of Pakistan to convey to the UN Security Council, the brutalities India is committing in India-held Kashmir. We would also like to bring to their attention the fake cases against Yasin Malik and other Kashmiri freedom fighters,” Ms Malik said, adding that Kashmir was a disputed territory falling under UN resolutions.

“I have been married for 13 years and have been denied my basic rights such as right to protection, communication and speak my mind against injustices committed by the Indian forces in Kashmir,” Mushaal Malik said, adding that, “if a terrorist like Kulbhushan Jadhav and his family could get their rights, Yasin Malik should also be allowed to meet his family.

“Anything can happen to Yasin Malik, who is already in poor health, especially when elections in India are nearing,” she added.

She said that Indian forces were committing the worst human rights violations in India-held Kashmir, where 20,000 women had been widowed, and there was no accountability.

Earlier, Minister for Human Rights Mian Hussain Pirzada extended support to the Ms Malik and vowed to voice her concerns at international forums. Yasin Malilk was charged with unlawful fundraising, being a member of a terrorist organisation, sedition and criminal conspiracy.

In the past, fake charges had been levelled in Indian courts against prominent leaders like Maqbool Bhatt and Afzal Guru that resulted in their execution. “Now, another very prominent pro-freedom Kashmiri leader who has a huge following in Kashmir is on trial. We suspect that the Indian government wants to get rid of him too. His life is in danger,” he said.

The minister said the allegations levelled against Yasin Malik were false, contrived and politically motivated. In addition to this, the act under which he was tried was in sheer violation of set principles of international law.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2022