Kashmiri separatist released from jail and reunited with family

(11 Nov 2002)

1. Pro Yasin Malik demonstrators voicing support on streets
2. Malik arriving back and being welcomed by friends and family
3. Malik being kissed and hugged by friends and family
4. Malik sitting at home receiving well wishers

STORYLINE:

Kashmir's top separatist leader Yasin Malik returned to his home on Monday after being freed from prison eight months after he was arrested for allegedly laundering money to finance terrorism, a security official said on Monday.

Malik, a former militant leader whose Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front is now a separatist political party, was flown on Monday from the high security Kot Bhalwal prison outside Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, to the summer capital Srinagar.

The decision to release Malik, an icon to thousands of Kashmiri youths, came soon after the installation of a new government in Jammu-Kashmir, the heartland of a 12-year Islamic insurgency.

Malik is said to be one of the seven key decision-makers of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the main Kashmiri separatist alliance.

He was arrested in March on charges of smuggling 100,000 US dollars to finance anti-Indian militants in the Kashmir Valley. Police officers stormed into a news conference he was giving in Srinagar and dragged him away.

His arrest came after police detained a woman travelling from Nepal carrying cash allegedly intended for him. Malik denied the allegation.

Malik, who suffers from a heart ailment, was granted bail in July, after a court was told that his health had deteriorated.

But within moments, he was rearrested and booked under the Public Safety Act, under which he could be detained for two years without trial.

Malik's release was intended as a goodwill gesture by the state government, which is hoping to persuade the separatists to give up their campaign and end the violence.

Malik is among the most popular young leaders in Kashmir. His group led the first wave of young Kashmiris that took to the gun in the disputed Himalayan region in the late 1980s, sneaking across the border to Pakistan where former members say they received weapons training to return to fight Indian security forces.

Pakistan denies India's allegation that it provides arms and money to separatist guerillas.

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