Yasin Malik (born 3 April 1966) is a Kashmiri separatist leader and former militant who advocates the separation of Kashmir from both India and Pakistan. He is the Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, which originally spearheaded armed militancy in the Kashmir Valley. Malik renounced violence in 1994 and adopted peaceful methods to come to a settlement of the Kashmir conflict. In May 2022, Malik pleaded guilty to charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against the state, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Early life
Yasin Malik was born on 3 April 1966 in the densely populated Maisuma locality of Srinagar. His father Ghulam Qadir Malik (1937–2012) died due to a cardiac arrest on 14 May 2012, while Yasin was on a visit to Pakistan. He has three sisters, including Amina Malik who has advocated for better prisoner's rights for Malik at the Tihar Jail.
Malik states that, as a young boy, he had witnessed violence carried out on the streets by the security forces. In 1980, after witnessing an altercation between the army and taxi drivers, he is said to have become a rebel. He formed a party called the Tala Party, which formed a revolutionary front, printing and distributing political materials and causing disturbances. His group was involved in attempting to disrupt the 1983 cricket match with West Indies in the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium, disturbing National Conference gatherings in Srinagar and protesting Maqbool Bhat's execution. Malik was arrested and detained for four months.
After getting released in 1986, the Tala Party was renamed the Islamic Students League (ISL), with Malik as the general secretary. The ISL became an important youth movement. Among its members were Ashfaq Majeed Wani, Javed Mir and Abdul Hameed Sheikh. They were drawn to the Jamaat leader of the Srinagar district, Maulvi Mohammad Yusuf Shah, whose Friday sermons were said to have been a favourite of the youth.
Politics
In the run up to the Legislative Assembly elections in 1987, the Islamic Students League led by Yasin Malik joined the Muslim United Front (MUF). It did not contest any seats because it did not believe in the constitution. But it took responsibility for campaigning for the MUF in all Srinagar constituencies. According to a spokesman of the Jamaat-e-Islami, all the parties that joined in the MUF were either pro-independence or pro-self-determination. According to another Jamaat member, the ISL was recruited into the MUF to provide "street power" to counter the "hooliganism" of the National Conference, the ruling party.
Malik campaigned for the Jamaat candidate Mohammad Yusuf Shah (part of MUF) who stood for the 1987 elections from Amirakadal, Srinagar. Scholar Sumantra Bose states that, as the vote counting began, it became clear that Yusuf Shah was winning by a landslide. However, the opposing National Conference candidate Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah was declared the winner. Yusuf Shah as well as Malik were arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and imprisoned until the end of 1987 without a formal charge, court appearance or a trial. Widespread rigging and "booth-capturing" in the elections were reported, which, were reportedly carried out by the National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah in connivance with the Government of India. The police refused to listen to any complaint. The National Conference–Congress alliance was declared the winner with 62 seats in the Assembly, and formed the government.
The rigged election of 1987 is seen by most scholars as the trigger for Kashmir insurgency. Malik disagrees by saying, "Let me clear it, rigging in 1987 elections didn't result in armed militancy. We were there even before 1987."
Militancy
After release from prison, Malik crossed over to the Pakistan-administered Kashmir to receive training at camps situated there. Pakistan's secret service ISI had struck deal with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in 1986 to support the launching of an insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir. This is believed to have been a short-term expedient for ISI to spur the Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir into action.