Indian court sentences top Kashmiri separatist to life in prison

Malik, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), had pleaded guilty to the charges but on Wednesday told the special court where his trial was held that he had been practising non-violent politics in Kashmir after giving up arms in the 1990s.Mainly Hindu India has been fighting an armed militancy in The court said Malik “did not want any trial and therefore, he was ready to plead guilty.”His wife Mushaal Hussein Mullick said the sentencing was illegitimate.”Verdict in minutes by Indian kangaroo court,” she wrote on Twitter. “The iconic leader will never surrender.”In Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, police fired tear gas and pellets to disperse stone-pelting protesters outside Malik’s residence.Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said it was a “black day” for Indian democracy and its justice system.”India can imprison Yasin Malik physically but it can never imprison idea of freedom he symbolises,” Sharif said on Twitter.India declared JKLF an “unlawful association” in 2019, the year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally controlled territories.Political parties in Kashmir said Malik’s verdict was a setback to peace efforts.”We are afraid that this will further compound the uncertainties in the region and will only fuel more alienation and separatist feelings,” a group of parties that have in the past fought elections in Kashmir said in a statement.