New Delhi: Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik has claimed he was roped in by the successive governments, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, to be a part of backchannel diplomacy with Pakistan and peace process.
Additionally, he also claimed to have been contacted by senior Intelligence Bureau officials, including the current National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, to serve several confidential assignments related to Kashmir and Pakistan.
Malik, who is serving the life sentence in a terror-funding case, made these claims in a self-submitted affidavit before the Delhi High Court in response to a National Investigation Agency plea which sought the death penalty for him.
The high court had last month sought Malik’s response to the NIA’s plea. Malik was convicted for life by a Delhi court in May 2022, after he pleaded guilty to charges levelled by the NIA in the terror-funding case.
The terror-funding case in which Malik has been convicted also involves Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, separatist leader Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, Rashid Engineer (currently a member of parliament), Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali and other separatist leaders.
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Indian passport, meeting Hafiz Saeed
In his 85-page submission filed before the Delhi HC, Malik has claimed he was issued a passport for the first time in 2001 during the Vajpayee government, along with a travel permit to Pakistan. The permission was granted despite a Look Out Circular against him.
Malik claimed he enjoyed this privilege as those who mattered in the Vajpayee government wanted him to support the prime minister in his pursuit of peace with Islamabad. He has claimed he was approached by people involved in the peace processes through both tracks.
Under the first track, he claimed that Doval, then the special director of the IB, met him in New Delhi. He was further taken to the then IB chief Shyamal Datta and Vajpayee’s national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, Malik has claimed in his affidavit. Before these meetings, Malik claimed that Doval visited him at Tihar jail in 1999 informing him that he would be released from prison. The Vajpayee government announced a ceasefire with Pakistan during the Ramzan of 2000.
“They both (Shyamal Datta and Brajesh Mishra) stated that our Prime Minister is serious in the talks process to resolve the Kashmir issue, and that I should support his Ramzan ceasefire,” Malik claimed.
In the next track, he claimed, Vajpayee’s interlocutor on Pakistan, R.K. Mishra, invited him to multiple meetings with NSA Mishra. “Both the tracks requested a public statement from myself as JKLF Chairman, from APHC (All Parties Hurriyat Conference) leadership and if possible…(sic)
“I replied I will try my level best. From Delhi, I called our general secretary, JKLF’s Rafeeq Darr in PoK, and advised him to arrange my phone call with United Jihaad Council Chief Sayeed Salauddin. In the evening, Sayeed Salauddin called me on my mobile in Delhi. I suggested to him it will not be prudent to oppose the Prime Minister’s Ramzan ceasefire,” Malik wrote in his affidavit.
“My suggestion to you is, you welcome Ramzan ceasefire with rider only ceasefire cannot work, ceasefire must be followed by unconditional dialogue as is going on with Naga Militants leadership that too in 3rd country. Sayeed Salauddin promised me I will call tomorrow a United Jihaad Council Meeting and discussed on the same issue and then will call you tomorrow for meeting so you can discuss with other UJC leaders about the same issue (sic),” he further claimed.
“Prime Minister Vajpayee conveyed a message of thanks for our efforts through R.K. Mishra,” Mallik claimed in the affidavit.
Malik further claimed to have been roped in by the Manmohan Singh-led government in 2006 when, according to him, he received a call from then IB special director V.K. Joshi who purportedly informed him about the Cabinet Committee on Security clearing Kashmiri leaders’ visit to Pakistan through Muzzafarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by bus.
Malik further claimed Joshi informed him about getting him a permit to travel to Pakistan soon, which came a couple of days after the call.
“It was a highly publicised event and was reported by media (both by Indian & Pakistani media along with International press) world over. We were the guests of the Pakistani state, hence, were hosted by their top brass of political leaders, sitting Senators, Local MLAs and Government Officials, most importantly the then Prime Minister & President of Pakistan,” Malik further submitted.
On the charges made by the NIA with respect to his collusion with Hafiz Saeed, Malik claimed he met the LeT chief on the request of Joshi who asked him to help in strengthening dialogue in the pursuit of peace.
He went on to claim that upon his return, Joshi met him in New Delhi and requested him to apprise the prime minister about the meeting in which the then national security advisor M. K. Narayanan was also present.
“I briefed him (PM Manmohan Singh) on my meetings and appraised him on the possibilities, where he conveyed his gratitude to me for my efforts, time, patience and dedication (sic). But as luck would have it, this meeting of mine with Hafiz Saeed and other militant leader of Pakistan which was initiated and executed only on the request of Special Director IB V K Joshi, were portrayed in a different context against me,” Malik further claimed in the affidavit.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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