Separatist leader Yasin Malik has launched a hunger strike inside his cell at Delhi's infamous Tihar Jail. Malik began his strike this morning in Tihar's Jail No. 7, alleging that his case is not being investigated properly.
Top jail officials intervened and spoke with Malik to call off his strike but he refused.
The chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), undergoing a life term in a terror-funding case, had moved an application with the central government seeking personal appearance in two cases.
The separatist leader is facing trial in cases related to the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officials in 1990.
Malik, 56, had written to the government for a physical appearance before the special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court.
He was earlier convicted by a court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in terror funding cases on May 19 and sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25. Malik was found guilty by the court under several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
A statement quoting JKLF spokesperson Muhammad Rafiq Dar said a meeting of the "supreme council" of the outfit had termed the non-presentation of Malik in courts as "illegal, inhumane and undemocratic".
Dar said Malik had originally decided to begin the hunger strike on July 12, a day before the last court hearing, which he postponed for 10 days at the request of jail authorities so that they had some time to take up the issue with concerned higher authorities.