Yasin Malik pursues peaceful means of conflict resolution: APHC

SRINAGAR — All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) headed by incarcerated Mirwaiz Umar Farooq strongly condemned the conviction and sentence of life imprisonment for senior resistance leader and chairman of JKLF Muhammad Yasin Malik by the court in New Delhi.

APHC in a statement to the media said that Yasin Malik since 1994 pursued peaceful and democratic means of conflict resolution. “A strong votary of dialogue and negotiations between the concerned parties to the Kashmir conflict i.e. people of J&K, India and Pakistan, he has been relentlessly and selflessly seeking its resolution,” it said.

It added, “Yasin Malik actively participated in all negotiations held on Kashmir after 2000 under various regimes in New Delhi and Islamabad. Yet he was arrested, shifted to Tihar, and has now been convicted in invented cases under draconian laws when actually he is being punished for his political beliefs on the J&K dispute and for representing the sentiments of its people.”

“The complete protest strikes being observed by people despite state coercion and pressure not to allow it, show’s people’s commitment to resistance against force and in support of resistance leadership in jails and under incarceration,” the statement reads.

“APHC asks the Government of India to release all political prisoners in jails across India and under house arrest, and resolve the lingering Kashmir conflict peacefully through deliberations among the parties to the dispute keeping in view the will of the people of J&K,” the statement reads, adding that imprisonment and incarceration cannot change that reality.