NIA court in Delhi on Wednesday handed life term to Yasin Malik. Special NIA judge Parveen Singh pronounced the verdict.

Earlier, the National Investigation Agency demanded the death penalty for Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, who had pleaded guilty to all the charges including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), in a terror funding case. NIA has demanded the maximum punishment under Section 121 which is the death penalty in this case and the minimum sentence he can get is life imprisonment.

Just a few hours before the court pronounced its verdict, Yasin Malik said he had been following Gandhian principles and non-violent politics.

Who Is Yasin Malik:

Yasin Malik a Kashmiri separatist leader and former militant. He is the Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, which originally spearheaded armed militancy in the Kashmir Valley.

October 1999: Indian Authorities arrested Yasin Malik under the Public Safety Act (PSA)

March 26, 2002: He was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and was detained for almost a year.

May 2007: Yasin Malik and his party Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front launched a campaign known as Safar-i-Azadi (Journey of Freedom). Yasin Malik and his team visited more than 3,500 villages of Kashmir promoting anti-Indian stance as a part of the Safar-iAzadi campaign.

February 2013: He shared the dais with banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed at a protest site in Islamabad.

January 12, 2016: He wrote a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, opposing Gilgit-Baltistan's merger with Pakistan.

2017: A case was registered against Yasin Malik for terror funding.

February 26, 2019: Incriminating documents and electronic items were seized from Malik's house.

April 10, 2019: Yasin Malik was arrested by NIA for his involvement in case related to the funding of terror and separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

March 2020: Yasin Malik and six accomplices were charged under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), the Arms Act 1959 and Ranbir Penal Code for the attack on 40 Indian Air Force personnel in Rawalpora, Srinagar on January 25, 1990.

May 10, 2022: Yasin Malik told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him including sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for the terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act) and 20 (being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation) of the UAPA and sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition) of the IPC.