By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, November 12 (IslamOnline) - Prominent separatist leader Yasin
Malik was freed from prison Monday, November 11, and was flown to
Srinagar from his prison in Jammu.
Malik
is president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) which
believes in an independent Kashmir. J&KL is a member of the
All-Party Hurriyet Conference.
The
unexpected development is seen as a part of attempts by Jammu and
Kashmir’s new chief minister Mufti Sayeed to restore peace in the
region. The new government has set free a number of separatists from
jails during the last few days. It has said that people against whom
there is not serious charge will be set free.
Yasin
Malik was lodged in Kote Balwal Jail in Jammu under the notorious
Public Safety Act (PSA) which has been routinely used to silence
critics in Kashmir. On March 24 this year he was arrested under a case
of smuggling one hundred thousand dollars in what many saw as a cooked
up case to put him in.
Malik’s
arrest took place while he was addressing a press conference. With a
whole battery of cameras taking pictures of him, he was dragged away
and put into an armoured vehicle.
He
was promptly imprisoned under the draconian anti-terrorism (POTA) law
but the designated court awarded him bail on July 20, 2002. As the
authorities wanted to keep him behind bars at least during the
elections, he was promptly booked under PSA soon after his release
from the central jail and lodged in Kote Balwal Jail.
This
is a known tactic in Kashmir where political opponents and militants
released on court orders are re-arrested on the prison gate minutes
later on some other “charge.”
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Nazir
Shaikh, a militant released after 12 years in jail, hugs his
mother.
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The
PDP-Congress coalition government has already released two JKLF
“commanders” Nazir Ahmed Sheikh and Showkat Ahmed Bakshi and top
Hizbul Mujahideen leader Ayub Dar.
The
released JKLF militants welcomed the “healing steps” taken by
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed but said it would not lead to the
resolution of the Kashmir issue.
“There
has been a perceivable change in the situation after the new
government took over the administration in the state,” Showkat
Bakshi, one of the accused in the [new chief minister’s daughter]
Rubaiyya Sayeed abduction case, told reporters at Hurriyat Conference
headquarters in Srinagar.
Bakhshi
said that the new government “can not resolve” the Kashmir issue
as governments come and go for administrative purposes only.
“"A dialogue between the three parties to the Kashmir issue -
India, Pakistan and Kashmiris - should start in order to find a
lasting solution,” he said.
“The
new chief minister has called for unconditional talks to resolve the
basic (Kashmir) issue, while former chief minister Farooq Abdullah was
dead against any such dialogue,” Bakshi, flanked by other former
JKLF commanders Nazir Ahmad Shiekh and Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, said.
Meanwhile
a senior National Conference activist, Ghulam Nabi Mir, was shot dead
by unidentified militants near Mujahid Manzil in downtown Srinagar
today.
Mir,
who hails from Anantnag district of South Kashmir, was shot by some
pistol-carrying militants from point blank range. He was rushed to a
hospital where he was declared brought dead.
No
militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the incident
