Kashmir separatist leader Yasin Malik, who went on a hunger strike on July 22, has been put on IV fluid (glucose) due to his deteriorating health condition, said Tihar jail authorities. Yasin Mallik has alleged that his case was not being investigated properly and went on a hunger strike to register his dissent. He was has been put on IV fluids since July 24, the authorities said.
Malik is sentenced to two life terms and different jail terms under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) following his conviction on charges of terror funding, spreading terrorism, and secessionist activities in the Kashmir Valley in 2017.
Malik refused to eat on last Friday and declared an indefinite hunger strike. “Initially, the jail officials met with him and tried to convince him to end his strike, but he refused. From July 24, he is on intravenous fluid or glucose,” a senior official told news agency.
Reacting to Malik’s hunger strike, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front’s (JKLF) spokesperson Rafiq Dar said that Yasin originally decided to begin the hunger strike on July 12, a day before the last hearing, but postponed it to July 22 after the jail authorities requested time to take up the matter with higher authorities.
Malik, the head of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019 in involvement with an overarching terror-funding case that first came under the radar of NIA in 2017. In its first information report (FIR), the NIA said Kashmiri separatists were receiving funds from Pakistan, including Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LoT) and Syed Salahuddin of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, to foment trouble in the Valley through stone-pelting, burning down of schools, and managing strikes and protests.
The central probe agency has arrested over a dozen accused in the case, including Malik, Asiya Andrabi of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, and Shabir Shah of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party.