JLKF Former Militant Leader Yasin Malik's Shocking Claim! 'Successive Indian Governments, PMs And IB Sanctioned His Engagement With Pakistan'

Srinagar: 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.

Malik, currently lodged in Tihar jail, in an affidavit beforethe 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.

He claims this truce was honoured for 25 years across the tenures of Rao, Vajpayee, Gujral, Manmohan Singh and even Modi’s first term.

He recounts his wide-ranging contacts. He said R.K. Mishra, aide to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, once handed him a phone to speak with industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, who encouraged him by sharing his own struggles. During the 2000 Ramzan ceasefire, Malik said he met IB Director Shyamal Dutta and NSA Brajesh Mishra, who assured him of Vajpayee’s seriousness. Journalist Prem Shankar Jha later hosted a meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh, Najma Heptullah and other Congress leaders, where Malik urged the opposition to support Vajpayee’s peace process. The next day, Singh led a Congress delegation to Vajpayee, publicly endorsing the ceasefire, and Sonia Gandhi and other leaders also came on board. Manmohan Singh, according to Malik, once told him: “I consider you the father of the non-violent movement in Kashmir.”

Malik said his engagement extended abroad. He recalled meetings with US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca, State Department officials, and a White House briefing with Elisabeth Millard, which he claimed were coordinated with Indian authorities. He said his foreign trips were made on a passport issued by Vajpayee’s government.

One of the charges that led to his conviction, a meeting with Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed was, Malik claimed, initiated by IB Special Director V.K. Joshi. He said Joshi asked him to engage Saeed to strengthen Manmohan Singh’s peace process. Malik travelled to Pakistan, urged militants to embrace peace, and later debriefed Singh and NSA M.K. Narayanan, who conveyed gratitude. He insists the meeting was later “portrayed out of context.”

Equally sensational is his claim about a Pakistani handler named Parvaiz Ahmed. Malik alleges that IB Director Nehchal Sandhu himself created the Gmail account parvezahmed1951@gmail.com for sensitive Track II exchanges. He said he urged the trial judge to verify this in the presence of NIA lawyers, but the email was instead used against him.

For 25 years, Malik says, the understanding was honoured. Dialogue continued, including with RSS leaders and Shankaracharyas. But after August 2019, cases were reopened and charges framed after 31 years. “The Indian state gave me a promise that neither I nor my party colleagues’ TADA cases will be followed,” Malik wrote. “This promise was followed by five prime ministers, including the present prime minister in his first tenure. But after Article 370 abrogation, everything changed.”