Former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday wrote a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah seeking a review of jailed JKLF chief Yasin Malik’s case “through a humanitarian lens”. In a post on X, Mehbooba said, “I’ve written to Shri Amit Shah ji to view Yasin Malik’s case through a humanitarian lens. While I differ with his political ideology, one cannot ignore the courage it took him to renounce violence and choose the path of political engagement and non-violent dissent.”In her long letter to make a mercy appeal to Amit Shah, Mufti wrote, “I earnestly appeal to your esteemed office for a compassionate and urgent review of the case of Yasin Malik — a name that once symbolised resistance, later chose restraint and now remains silenced behind prison walls.”Mehbooba Mufti’s appeal to Amit Shah has come at a time when jailed separatist leader and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik has claimed that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed “gratitude” to him after he met Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan in 2006.Also read | ‘Manmohan Singh conveyed his gratitude’: Yasin Malik claims ex-PM thanked him for meeting Hafiz Saeed; submits affidavit in Delhi high courtIn a recent affidavit filed before the Delhi high court, Malik stated that the 2006 Pakistan meeting was arranged at the request of an Intelligence Bureau officer as part of a backchannel diplomacy by the then UPA government.Malik faces multiple grave charges, including involvement in the 1990 killing of four IAF officers in Srinagar and the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. He is also serving a life sentence in a 2017 terror-funding case after pleading guilty under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
