IB initiated my actions, says Yasin Malik

Jailed Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front's (JKLF) former militant leader Mohammad Yasin Malik flaunted his associations with Prime Ministers, Intelligence chiefs, National Security Adviser, Industrialists, and powerful politicians and claimed his actions in getting in touch with Pakistan was initiated by the Intelligence Bureau.

- M Saleem Pandit

Malik, currently lodged in Tihar jail, in an affidavit before the Delhi High Court said this state-sanctioned engagement continued over successive changes in government.

Situating his trial in the aftermath of the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, Malik alleged that the move unleashed "fear, intimidation, and arrests of thousands of political leaders, activists, teachers, lawyers and journalists." He recalled how in the early 1990s, he was taken from Mehrauli sub-jail to a bungalow in Maharani Bagh, where Home Minister Rajesh Pilot, IAS officer Wajahat Habibullah, and senior IB officers pressed him to surrender arms. According to him, then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao gave orders to bring him back into democratic politics. After three years of negotiations, he was released in May 1994, announcing a unilateral ceasefire in Srinagar and declaring a commitment to nonviolent democratic struggle.

Malik says the government followed through, granting bail in all 32 pending TADA cases, none of which were pursued.