"We defeated the Indian state"

From his arrest as a young boy to picking up arms and then shunning armed resistance, pro-independence leader and former militant commander Muhammed Yasin Malik has had more than an eventful political journey. In an interview with Saima Bhat he talks about his life and his upcoming autobiography.

Kashmir Life:You started your journey as an activist, then mobilized people to vote and eventually picked the gun and then shunned it. Tell us about this experience of your life.

Yasin Malik: During 1987 elections, a meeting was conducted by Muslim United Front that they wanted to participate in the elections so that they could pass a resolution in the assembly for the Kashmir problem. Our argument to them was ‘State won’t allow you to win, they said, we will take a chance’, after which they offered us seats but we rejected. There was no candidate from our side. We told them we’d support you.Their whole campaign was run by student’s organizations. Then result was out.Winners were declared losers and losers were declared winners and hundreds of our party members were arrested including me, Ashfaq, Javaid and Hamid. We were taken to Red 16 interrogation centre, where due to torture I got blood infection.I was shifted to hospital where doctors said my one heart valve had gotten affected,I was in hospital for 75 days and later spent rest of the year in prison.

When we were released,we realized that there is no space for non violent democratic movement.The concept of non violent movement was weaved by the Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi himself but the people, who claim Mahatma as the father of their nation did not show any kind of respect nor provided any space for our non-violent democratic movement. So we joined JKLF- whose founder was Amanullah Khan and Shaheed Mohammed Maqbool Bhat and the armed struggle, which ultimately brought the biggest revolution in Kashmir, started in late 1980’s. Then I was arrested in 1990 and spend four years in solitary confinement in different places like Delhi and Agra. But during this period, in 1992 I was shifted to AIIMS (All India Institute for Medical Sciences, Delhi) for open-heart surgery where one of my affected heart valves was replaced. While I was recovering at AIIMS, diplomats from different countries and Indian civil society approached me. They would ask: ‘Kashmiri people have no history of violence then why did we start an armed struggle?’ I explained to them my experience of being in the non-violent movement and finally their reply was ‘Kashmiri people are justified’.

Then in 1994 I was released and we declared unilateral ceasefire, most unpopular decision of that time. Even many of my own colleagues opposed me. more