Pakistan summons India's Charge d'Affaires over deteriorating health of terrorist Yasin Malik
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief began an indefinite hunger strike in jail on July 22 after India did not respond to his plea that he be allowed to physically appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed case.
Total Views |
Islamabad, July 30: Pakistan summoned India’s Charge d’Affaires here to the ministry of foreign Affairs and handed over a demarche conveying Islamabad’s concern over the deteriorating health condition of Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik.
Malik is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail where he began an indefinite hunger strike on July 22. He was on Wednesday admitted to Delhi's Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital following a fluctuation in his blood pressure.
This came after his plea of being allowed physically to appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case, in which he is accused. Rubaiya was abducted in 1989 by terrorists. Malik is accused to be among the JKLF terrorists who abducted her. Rubaiya appeared in a court on July 15 and identified Malik and three others as her abductors.
The Indian diplomat was told about Pakistan’s “deep dismay” over the Indian authorities’ latest move of implicating Malik in “two more bogus cases crafted around incidents that happened at least three decades ago”, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Also Read: Terrorist Yasin Malik goes on hunger strike inside Tihar jail
“A letter addressed to the Indian Prime Minister from Ms. Mushaal Hussein Mullick, wife of Yasin Malik, seeking her husband’s immediate release from prison in view of his precarious health condition that aggravated after his decision to go on a hunger strike earlier this month, was also handed over to the Cd’A,” it said.
“Given the urgency of the situation and keeping in view Malik’s sharply deteriorating health indicators, the government of India has been strongly urged to provide him urgent medical care, immediately release him from prison, cancel his fallacious conviction and withdraw all other cases against him,” the Foreign Office statement said.
Also Read: Rubaiya Sayeed identifies terrorist Yasin Malik, 3 others as abductors in her 1989 kidnapping case
Malik was arrested in early 2019 in a 2017 terror-funding case registered by National Investigation Agency (NIA). Malik had pleaded guilty in the case and was given a life sentenced by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Delhi in May.
In January 2021, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), framed charges against 10 people, including Malik, in Rubaiya's abduction case. In all, there are around 65 criminal cases against Malik related to murder, attempt to murder, rioting and sedition.