New Delhi: JKLF chief Yasin Malik, who was one of the first terrorists to start the militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, on Wednesday waited for his quantum of sentence from an NIA court here.
Malik, who is known to have killed four IAF personnel in a terror attack in January 1990, was convicted on May 19 after he pleaded guilty to all the charges in connection to a 2017 case related to terrorism and secessionist activities.
Earlier during the proceedings on Wednesday, the NIA sought death penalty for Malik.
According to a lawyer present during the hearing, Malik’s counsel claimed that the JKLF chief had shunned violence 28 years back and had not indulged in any kind of violent means during this period.
In this matter, after investigation a chargesheet was filed by Investigating Agency against Malik, Kashmiri separatist leaders such as Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, Shabbir Shah, Masarat Alam, Md Yusuf Shah, Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Khan, Md Akbar Khanday, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Abdul Rashid Sheikh and Naval Kishore Kapoor.
Other accused Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin have been declared proclaimed offenders (PO) in this case.
In the month of March this year, Court had ordered to framing of charges under the provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against Malik and others in the case.
A case under sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act), and 20 (being member of terrorist gang or organisation) and sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of Indian Penal Code was registered against Malik and others in this case.
After hearing the charges were framed against Malik when he submitted before the court that he will not contest the charges levelled against him.
NIA Special Judge Parveen Singh after hearing the matter sought an affidavit regarding the financial status of Yasin and directed National Investigating Agency (NIA) to submit the report before the court on May 25 and fixed the matter for hearing the submission on the quantum of sentence.
