Srinagar, Sep 19 (IANS) Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti, said on Friday that she has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to review the case of incarcerated JKLF chief, Yasin Malik, through a ‘humanitarian lens’.  Interestingly, Mehbooba Mufti’s appeal to Amit Shah has come at a time when media reports quoting Yasin Malik’s affidavit to the Delhi High Court said that he had given up arms and met terrorist leader, Hafiz Saeed, at the behest of the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

Malik also said in his affidavit that Manmohan Singh had thanked him for meeting Hafiz Saeed and for giving up arms to wage a non-violent separatist struggle. Mehbooba Mufti said on X, “I’ve written to Shri Amit Shah ji to view Yasin Malik’s case through a humanitarian lens. While I differ with his political ideology, one cannot ignore the courage it took him to renounce violence and choose the path of political engagement and non violent dissent”. In her long letter to make a mercy appeal to Amit Shah, Mehbooba Mufti wrote, “I earnestly appeal to your esteemed office for a compassionate and urgent review of the case of Yasin Malik -- a name that once symbolised resistance, later chose restraint and now remains silenced behind prison walls.

“His story is not simple, as no story born out of conflict ever is. Yet what matters most is the profound transformation he undertook and the trust he placed in the state when he renounced violence and chose the path of political engagement and non-violent dissent. Yasin Malik’s journey is no secret to the Indian state. 1994 he took a courageous and rare decision to lay down arms and embrace political non-violent means to pursue change,” her letter reads.

Yasin Malik is presently serving a life sentence in a terror funding case after he was convicted by the NIA court. NIA has appealed to the high court to award a death sentence to Malik in the terror funding case. He is also on trial for shooting and killing four IAF officials in Srinagar's Rawalpora area on January 25, 1990. The victims included Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna. In 2024, an eyewitness identified Yasin Malik as the shooter in this 1990 IAF officers’ murder case before a special court. This incident is a significant part of the multiple charges Yasin Malik faces, including his involvement in the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of former Union Home Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.