Yasin Malik is the prime accused in the murder of four Indian Air Force officers in Srinagar on January 25, 1990. It was just the beginning of militancy. Four IAF officers were waiting at a bus stop. They were completely unarmed. Like hundreds of such killings in Kashmir, these also went unaccounted for a long time.
In the meanwhile, Malik was deified as a “Gandhian”. In fact, he would himself proclaim to be a Gandhian who wanted a peaceful resolution to the “Kashmir problem” that has been created by people like him by throwing Kashmir into a morass of violence and bloodshed.
Malik is undergoing life imprisonment after having been convicted in a case of waging war against the state, in which he pleaded guilty in the year 2022.
He is now facing trial in the murder of four IAF officers. Justice has eventually caught up with him. The prosecution is seeking death penalty for him in this case.
Recently, he filed an affidavit in the court claiming himself as an “ambassador” of peace. The affidavit reportedly mentions him saying that the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh personally thanked him for having met Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan.
The argument given is that India wanted to negotiate peace with Pakistan and it did not want militant organisations like Jaish-e-Mohammad to sabotage the peace process. Malik claims to have tried to bring Saeed on board.
This is a ludicrous claim. Malik and his lawyers know very well what will be the political implications of such a claim under the current circumstances.
Expectedly, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its supporters, including those on social and mainstream media, have already latched on this claim that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was quite soft towards terrorism. Surprisingly, those believing Malik’s claim have no problem in taking him, a convicted terrorist, on face value as long as it puts the Congress on the defensive.
Also read: Manmohan Singh thanked me for meeting Saeed: Malik
It is a fact that the UPA government’s response and reaction to various acts of terror was not as robust and aggressive as that of the BJP-led NDA government, but to suggest that former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh would involve a terrorist like Malik for engaging with another terrorist like Saeed is ridiculous. Why would India’s Prime Minister need to engage with a designated terrorist like Saeed?
Malik for obvious reasons wants to wipe out his past that is full of killings and bloodshed. While the murder of four IAF officers is on record, there is all likelihood of his involvement in more targeted killings and bomb blasts, which were triggered during the start of militancy in Kashmir.
A few hundred Kashmiri Pandits were also killed during 1989-90. There were not many active militants those days in Kashmir. Most of those killings went unaccounted. It is widely believed that most of these killings were carried out by the “pioneers” of militancy in Kashmir that included Malik.
Interestingly, Malik now alleges that he is being “brandished” as a terrorist due to the politics that has emerged after the abrogation of Article 370. This is because he does not want to face justice for killing innocent people in Kashmir, including the four IAF officers who were killed in cold blood on a chilly winter day in Srinagar.
While law will take its own course and eventually the wheel of justice will move full circle, all stakeholders should beware of the deliberate attempt by Malik and his supporters to spin a different narrative at a time when his trial in the killing of four IAF officers is in an advanced stage.
The aim of such ludicrous claims, that Dr Manmohan Singh felt grateful to him, is obvious, to deflect attention from the trial. The murder of four IAF officers still evokes a strong sentiment across the country as justice has not been delivered even after 35 years.
The most convenient way is to name a former Prime Minister and leave the rest to those who use such claims to settle scores with their political opponents. That is what is happening with the BJP supporters blaming the Congress for patronising Malik, which is far from truth. Moreover, Dr Singh is not even around to defend himself against such fake and malicious claims made by a convicted terrorist.
Like Malik, there are many others who have been involved in murders of innocent people in Kashmir. Many of them are still roaming about scot-free having assumed different roles and identities and claiming themselves to be the supporters of “peaceful resolution to Kashmir” like Malik.
The way the Government of India abrogated Article 370, amidst a widespread perception that it can never be abrogated, it must bring to book all those who actually killed innocent people and those who conspired in it.
Good that justice is catching up with terrorists like Malik. Hopefully the case should reach a logical conclusion. The slain IAF officers deserve justice and they must get it at any cost.
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