Srinagar: Separatist leader Yasin Malik has been sentenced to life in prison by a Delhi court in a terror funding case, sparking a partial shutdown in the Valley on Thursday. All shopping malls and shops are closed in Srinagar city including city center Lal Chowk and Malik's residential area Maisuma. Public transport and mobility are low, but government offices and schools are open.
Although the police are not preventing anyone from entering the Maisuma area, to maintain law and order, they are regularly patrolling the area. Besides, mobile internet speed has also been reduced in the city centre as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, police have also claimed to have arrested ten youths involved in protests and stone-pelting before Malik's sentence yesterday. Pertinently, Malik was sentenced by the NIA court in two cases to life imprisonment and a fine of more than Rs 10 lakh.
Meanwhile, Separatist group Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq condemned the conviction and sentence of life imprisonment given to Yasin Malik and said that his conviction is based on invented cases. "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 (Yasin) has been relentlessly and selflessly seeking its resolution. 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," Hurriyat said in a statement.
Read: Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik gets lifer in terror funding case
