DG ISPR condemns life sentence awarded to Yasin Malik

RAWALPINDI, May 25: Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) has issued a statement condemning the Indian court’s decision to sentence Kashmir liberation activist Yasin Malik. The statement issued by the DG ISPR said that India has sentenced Yasin Malik over fabricated allegations. These kinds of acts by India would not be able to suppress Kashmir’s struggle for independence, it added. The DG ISPR added that the real struggle for Kashmir is continuous in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. We stand with our Kashmiris brothers in their fight for autonomy and independence, he added.. The statement from the military’s media wing came after an Indian court awarded life imprisonment to Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik. The Indian court, officially convicted Yasin Malik on May 19 in cases registered against him over three decades ago and fixed the hearing for Wednesday to announce the quantum of the sentence. The National Investigation Agency had demanded the maximum punishment, the death penalty, while the defence pleaded for life imprisonment. “Two life sentences and five punishments of 10 years of rigorous imprisonment each have been awarded. All sentences are to run concurrently. A monetary penalty of over Rs 1 million has also been levied,” lawyer Umesh Sharma said. Different prison sentences and fines have been awarded for different cases. Yasin took to the rostrum amid the hearing and said that he is a law-abiding citizen and has spent his life according to Mahatma Gandhi’s principles. Why did several Indian Prime Ministers meet me if I was a terrorist, why I was given an Indian passport? he asked. The ISPR in its latest Tweet said, “Pakistan strongly condemns life sentence awarded to Yasin Malik on fabricated charges. Such oppressive tactics cannot dampen the spirit of people of Kashmir in their just struggle against illegal Indian occupation. We stand with them in quest for self-determination as per UNSCRs.’ On the other hand, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said that life imprisonment for valiant freedom fighter Yasin Malik will provide fresh impetus to Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. “Today is a black day for Indian democracy & its justice system. India can imprison Yasin Malik physically but it can never imprison idea of freedom he symbolizes,” the Prime Minister remarked in a tweet posted on his social media account. Earlier, the Indian Charge d’ Affaires (Cd’A) was called to Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and handed over a demarche conveying Pakistan’s strong condemnation on the framing of fabricated charges against Malik, who is currently imprisoned at Tihar jail by the Indian authorities. – NNI