Yasin Malik shifted to hospital in Delhi: Family

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 20

Senior separatist leader and chairman of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Mohammad Yasin Malik has been hospitalised in New Delhi as he is “seriously ill”.

Yasin’s family members said he had been shifted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital from Tihar Jail following his hunger strike for the last nearly 10 days.

Addressing the media at their Maisuma residence here on Saturday, Yasin’s mother and sister said they were informed by his lawyer on Saturday that the JKLF chief had been hospitalised. “The authorities were forced to tell his lawyer that his condition was very serious and he had been on a hunger strike for the last 10 days,” the family members said, adding that Yasin had been insisting that he was shifted to the jail on an “illegal remand.”

A Delhi court had on April 10 sent Yasin to the NIA custody till April 22 after the agency sought his custodial interrogation in connection with a case related to alleged funding of separatists and militant groups in J&K.

He was produced before Special Judge Rakesh Syal. In the courtroom, the NIA arrested him and sought his 15-day custodial remand. He was shifted to Tihar Jail on Tuesday.

Expressing concern over Yasin’s failing health, Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the JKLF chief’s safety was the responsibility of the state.

“Deeply disturbed by the sudden news about Yasin Malik being seriously ill and shifted to a hospital in New Delhi. As no one is allowed to meet him, details are not yet known. His safety and well-being is the responsibility of the state which has arrested him,” Mirwaiz tweeted.

Meanwhile, as the news about the hospitalisation of Yasin Malik spread, the Maisuma area here, where the JKLF leader lives, witnessed a spontaneous shutdown. All the shops and other business establishments in the area closed as a mark of protest.