Reports have appeared in the Indian media of a fast unto death evidently begun in prison by the 56-year-old Kashmiri leader, Yasin Malik. The headline to a story by the Hindustan Times reads, “Yasin Malik on fast unto death inside Tihar Jail, seeks fair trial.”
The online journal thequint.com quotes Malik’s sister Abida Malik as saying in Srinagar on July 21 that she had met her brother in Delhi’s Tihar prison and learnt from him that the fast was going to start on July 22. According to Abida, her brother gave her a “will” announcing the fast. In that “will”, says Abida, Malik writes of having “perceived non-violent struggle as a powerful force” and of trying “to find creative ways of carving out non-violent struggle in the face of violent state oppression [and] violence fixated news media”.
“His sister also said,” adds thequint.com, “that she and her mother had tried convincing the 56-year-old to not go through with the hunger strike, but he refused. He said this is his last resort and called it a farewell, Abida added.”
In a story with a Srinagar dateline, The Telegraph of Kolkata reported on July 22 that “Malik’s mother Atiqa Begum and sister Abida Malik released what they called his ‘will’ before the media in Srinagar, citing the reasons behind the hunger strike.”
The Telegraph report goes on to state that “the JKLF chairman, who is pleading his own cases”, recalled being ‘pressed’ while in jail in 1994 to start a non-violent struggle and being assured that Delhi would allow a “genuine political space” and resolve the Kashmir issue “through meaningful dialogue”.
It seems that in this “will” Malik recalls that after his release in 1994 he renounced violence by announcing a ceasefire, as a result of which he was “publicly declared a traitor” by some elements in Kashmir.
Malik also wishes to underline that the cases against him and his colleagues under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (or TADA) were not pursued by the governments led by P.V. Narasimha Rao, H.D. Deve Gowda, I.K. Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh, nor by Narendra Modi in his first term.
“They all followed the letter and spirit of ceasefire in good spirit. But suddenly the present dispensation in its second term has started trial of 32-year-old TADA related militancy cases, which is against the very spirit, essence and genesis of ceasefire agreement,” the “will” reads.
After 1994, Malik said, he never supported militancy openly or clandestinely.
According to the journal, Business Standard, a senior official at Tihar Jail has confirmed that Malik is on a hunger strike.
Questions are inescapable. Is it sound to reopen cases that were closed for 25 years or more by successive governments that negotiated with Malik, including governments led by the BJP’s Vajpayee and by Modi in his first term?
Does the present government have no desire whatever to attract even minimal goodwill from the Kashmiri people? Letting Malik die from a fast, or sentencing him to death after flawed trials, will only give Yasin Malik and Kashmiri separatism a long and robust future life.