Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front-Yasin (JKLF-Y) president Yasin Malik says it has abandoned the method of protest using force of arms and has adopted the Gandhian method. He has made this claim in his affidavit submitted to the UAPA court reviewing the ban on JKLF-Y. Malik said that to achieve the JKLF-Y’s objective of establishing a “united independent Kashmir” in 1994, it had given up armed struggle and adopted the method of “Gandhian resistance”.
Yasin’s affidavit has been mentioned in the order issued by the UAPA court last month. It has also been published in the Gazette on Thursday. The decision to declare JKLF-Y as an ‘unlawful organisation’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 has been retained for the next five years. The Gazette also highlights how top political and government officials in the Central Government have been engaged with the separatists since 1994 in seeking a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir issue.
Yasin Malik, who founded JKLF-Y in 1988, is the main accused in the sensational killing of four Indian Air Force personnel in Rawalpora, Srinagar in 1990. Earlier this year witnesses identified him as the primary shooter. Malik was also sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2022 in a terrorism financing case investigated by the NIA.
In his reply to the court, Yasin claimed that in the early nineties he was assured by various government officials that they would resolve the Kashmir dispute through meaningful dialogue. Once he initiates unilateral ceasefire, all cases against him and JKLF-Y members will be withdrawn.