Mushaal urges world community to raise voice for Yasin Malik's release

Mushaal Hussein Mullick, wife of incarcerated Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, on Tuesday warned that awarding the death penalty to her husband could have far-reaching consequences, including the risk of a nuclear conflict in South Asia that could engulf the entire region and threaten global peace.

Addressing media persons at the Central Press Club, Muzaffarabad, after briefly attending a protest demonstration called by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), Ms Mullick appealed to freedom- and justice-loving people across the world to raise their voices for saving her husband’s life.

Ms Mullick who was accompanied by her daughter Raziyah Sultana and sister Sabeel Hussein Mullick, maintained that Yasin Malik was not struggling solely for the freedom of Kashmir but for peace in the entire world, stressing that Kashmir remained one of the most dangerous nuclear flashpoints due to the unresolved dispute between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed states.

Drawing comparisons with ongoing conflicts such as Gaza, Ukraine and tensions between Iran and Israel, she said that while those wars pose serious threats, they do not carry the same level of nuclear danger as Kashmir. She also referred to recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan and India, noting that none of those incidents escalated into a nuclear confrontation.

However, she warned that if Indian courts decided to send Yasin Malik to the gallows, it would not merely be a judicial decision but a dangerous declaration of war. “It will be like detonating a hydrogen bomb, the impact of which the world will not be able to handle,” she said, adding that such a move could trigger a “hard war” in the region with nuclear implications. “In that case, the entire Asian region could be drawn into the conflict,” she cautioned.

Ms Mullick said that if a leader who had abandoned armed struggle and adopted a peaceful, political path inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was subjected to psychological, mental and physical torture in a death cell, then it would become extremely difficult to prevent a wider conflict. She added that every Kashmiri who believed in either peaceful or armed resistance would rise against such a verdict.

Questioning the silence of the international community, she said that while a Peace Board could be discussed at the global level for Palestine, the longstanding and grave issue of occupied Jammu and Kashmir continued to be ignored. She asked why no such Peace Board was being established for Kashmir, where, she pointed out, Indian forces had for decades unleashed severe atrocities against unarmed civilians and where gross human rights violations continued unabated.

She said enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture of political prisoners and widespread human rights abuses had been order of the day in occupied Kashmir. "Honestly speaking, the scale of genocide and massacre in Kashmir has been much larger but remains underreported due to prolonged communication blackouts."

Ms Mullick demanded that a ‘board of peace’ or an independent international mechanism be established for Kashmir to ensure durable regional and global peace. As a goodwill gesture, she said, Yasin Malik should be released and allowed to continue his peaceful political struggle.

She also urged the government of Pakistan to take Mr Malik’s case to the International Court of Justice, similar to India’s spy Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case, so that the world could be exposed to India’s fascist face and the reality of its judicial system. She termed Mr Malik’s incarceration and possible execution a blatant violation of international law, human rights and the United Nations Charter.

Earlier, dozens of people gathered at Burhan Wani Chowk in Muzaffarabad to demand the release of the detained JKLF chairman. Shops and businesses remained closed from morning until afternoon following a shutter-down strike call given by the JAAC, marking a shift from local grievances to a broader national issue.

At the conclusion of the demonstration, JAAC leaders went to Domel where they handed over a memorandum to the United Nations observers, urging international intervention in the case.

During the press conference, Ms Mullick praised the JAAC for organising protests and strikes in support of Mr Malik. Paying tribute to the public, activists and youth for participating in demonstrations despite heavy rain, she said their sacrifices were sending a clear message to the world that the Kashmiri people stood firmly with their leadership and would never relinquish their right to freedom.

Tariq Naqash