New Delhi
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik, who is serving a life sentence in a terror funding case, has made explosive claims in a sworn affidavit submitted to the Delhi High Court. Malik alleges that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “personally thanked and expressed gratitude” to him for holding a meeting with Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed as part of a backchannel initiative endorsed by Indian intelligence.
According to NDTV, which first reported on the affidavit, Malik insists the 2005 meeting with Saeed was “not an independent initiative” but carried out “at the request” of senior Intelligence Bureau officials after the Kashmir earthquake. Malik claims that then–IB Special Director V.K. Joshi urged him to engage both jihadi commanders and Pakistani political leadership to support Singh’s “peace efforts.”
The affidavit states that Hafiz Saeed subsequently convened a gathering of anti-India groups where Malik delivered a speech urging militants to embrace peace and abandon violence on Islamic grounds. Malik contends this speech was later twisted into evidence of his alleged terror links — which he calls a “betrayal,” arguing it had in fact been sanctioned as part of the government’s peace outreach.
After his return to New Delhi, Malik says he was debriefed by IB officials and then escorted to meet Manmohan Singh at the Prime Minister’s residence. He claims Singh, in the presence of then National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, “conveyed his gratitude” for Malik’s efforts in engaging even the most hardline elements. Malik goes further, asserting that Singh described him as the “father of the non-violent movement in Kashmir.”
Malik also cited long-standing contacts with Indian political leadership across parties, claiming he was repeatedly engaged by governments from V.P. Singh through Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Singh, and was “actively persuaded” to project the Kashmiri cause on domestic and international platforms.
The affidavit reignites controversy around Malik, who has been convicted for terror financing and stands accused of multiple crimes, including the killing of four Indian Air Force officers in 1990 and the kidnapping of Rubiya Sayeed, daughter of former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Reacting to the revelations, BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh said Malik’s statement shows that a convicted terrorist was “negotiating with India’s most wanted terrorists at the behest of the Congress-led central government,” accusing the UPA regime of legitimizing separatists under the guise of dialogue.
