New Delhi: On August 27, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik submitted a detailed 25-page written submission before the Additional Sessions Court (TADA/POTA) in Srinagar through his lawyer Abu Adil Pandit. The court has listed the matter for next hearing on September 19.Malik begins with the most recent charge levied on him. On June 29, the State Investigation Agency (SIA), Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, filed a chargesheet in connection with the horrific murder of Sarla Bhat.In April 1990, Bhat, a nurse, was abducted from the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and shot dead. Her bullet-ridden body was later dumped in downtown Srinagar with a note branding her a mukhbir (informer), where it was found on April 19, 1990. In March 2024, the case was transferred to the SIA by order of the Jammu and Kashmir police chief. In June this year, Malik was named as an accused in SIA’s 737-page chargesheet. The investigation has found Malik, along with Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Mohammad Yousuf alias Idrees and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo, to be involved in the planning and execution of Bhat’s abduction and brutal killing.Malik has contended, “To my utter shock and disbelief, I was arrayed as one of the accused in the said chargesheet after more than three decades of the occurrence. That prior to the filing of the chargesheet, on 2nd and 3rd June 2026, three officers of the State Investigation Agency visited me in Central Jail No. 7, Tihar, New Delhi, pursuant to an order of the competent Court. During my examination they confronted me with only two allegations – Firstly, they referred to an alleged handwritten note purportedly issued by the JKLF, allegedly recovered from the scene of occurrence, claiming responsibility for the murder and mentioning the names of Javaid Mir, Sheikh Abdul Hamid and Mohammad Yasin Malik. Secondly, I was asked, ls it true that JKLF suspected a Nurse of SKIMS Soura, namely Sarla Bhat of passing information to security persons regarding your presence in Hafiz Bazaz R/O Narwara and consequent upon it you asked JKLF to kill her?”He adds, “Why did the investigating authorities of that time never implicate Javed, Hamid or Yasin Malik in this case? On what legal or factual basis has this theory suddenly emerged after several decades?”In his submission, beyond defending himself, he defends Bhat too. He explicitly calls Sarla Bhat an “innocent civilian” and says she was “as innocent as my own thirteen-year-old daughter.” He denies she was an informer.According to Malik’s account in the affidavit, on April 8, 1990, a Border Security Force (BSF) operation unfolded at a house belonging to Hafiz Bazaz in Narwara, downtown Srinagar, where Malik and several associates had arrived during a period of curfew.He recalls that about 20 minutes after they reached the house, BSF raided the premises. Malik says he attempted to escape by jumping from the fifth floor, suffering severe, life-threatening injuries, losing consciousness and subsequently falling into a coma. His associates were arrested. Malik says the BSF did not initially realise who he was and that he was taken to hospital because of the severity of his injuries.Malik dismantles the allegation on two fronts. He denies that Bhat was an informer whose tip-off prompted the April 8 BSF raid, arguing that the force itself had no prior knowledge that he was inside the Narwara house. And even if a retaliatory motive existed, he says he could not have orchestrated Bhat’s kidnapping and murder 11 days later; Malik claims he was critically injured after jumping from the building during the raid, unconscious and in a coma.The reopening of Bhat’s case is being seen as part of a larger scheme of things after 2019. Since the reading down of Article 370, Kashmir saw a renewed wave of killing of Pandits who remained in the valley, and also a string of murders of migrant workers from other parts of India who had come to work in Kashmir.In May 2022, Malik, a senior Kashmiri separatist leader, was sentenced to life imprisonment being convicted of funding terrorism. On the day of Malik’s sentencing, shops in some areas of Srinagar were shut and police fired tear gas to disperse stone-throwing protesters outside Malik’s residence. Mobile internet was suspended in the region as a security precaution. Malik’s sentencing also came only a few months after the death of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the former head of the Hurriyat Conference and the most prominent separatist leader in Kashmir.Interestingly, Malik also brings into the fold of his submission and for his defence, the administration of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir headed by Governor Jagmohan – a person known for personally scrutinising sensitive security files and maintaining close supervision over matters concerning militancy and public order.Malik writes, “In his book “My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir (1991)”, Governor Jagmohan discussed my escape from Narwara and stated that I could have been arrested in 1990 had I been engaged through the political process. Significantly, at no point did he suggest that I was involved in the brutal murder of Ms. Sarla Bhat or that I was responsible for the killing of Kashmiri Pandits or their subsequent migration from the Valley. Had the State truly possessed a written note allegedly recovered from the deceased naming Javed Mir, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, and Yasin Malik, as is now claimed by the newly born State Investigation Agency (SIA), such a crucial piece of evidence could never have escaped the attention of the Governor or the investigating authorities of that time. If such material genuinely existed there is every reason to believe that Governor Jagmohan would have referred to it in his book or appropriate legal proceedings would have been initiated immediately.”Malik maintains in the affidavit, invoking “Almighty Allah” and the Quran, that he had no role in Bhat’s killing.In his written submission, Malik travels from 1990 to 2026. In 25 pages, he moves from his political interactions with the Government of India, including interactions with former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra and R.K. Mishra and IB official Ajit Doval during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure. Malik says he remembers an India where he was issued a passport for medical treatment abroad and also claims that he declined financial assistance offered by both Indian and Pakistani embassies. Malik also mentions, “I was informed by the then National Security Adviser, Shri Brajesh Mishra, and by Shri Ajit Doval, who was then serving as a senior officer of the Intelligence Bureau, that Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee wants healthy Yasin Malik at peace and dialogue table.”Running parallel to this is the publicly available history of Malik’s political evolution, which reflects a remarkably specific vision of Kashmir that sought to replace the gun with democratic consent. Having once led an armed movement, Malik renounced violence in 1994 and repeatedly described his subsequent struggle as a democratic, non-violent movement. His aspiration was not simply separation from India, but the creation of what he called an “independent, secular, democratic Kashmir” – one that would exist without hostility towards either India or Pakistan.Malik argues that he is being retrospectively transformed into a symbol of Kashmiri violence, despite earlier Indian governments – across ideological and party lines – having engaged with him as a political interlocutor. At the same time, he attempts to reposition Kashmiris not merely as actors in the conflict, but as people who endured mass violence, repression, curfews, killings and social rupture themselves.From Tihar jail, Malik reflects on how mainstream media has portrayed him. He explains, “During the past eight years of my incarceration, I believe that my name and image were repeatedly projected in the public domain during election campaigns conducted under the Government headed by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. In my perception, I was consistently portrayed as a symbolic figure in the political discourse during this period. ..I have therefore been unable to understand why my name and image were repeatedly invoked during the Parliamentary General Elections for the year of 2019 and 2024. From the manner in which these events unfolded, I formed the belief that my name and image were used as political discourse during those election campaigns.”Long before his Public Safety Act detention in 2019, Malik’s political life had already been a cycle of preventive arrests and imprisonment. While he continued to lead the JKLF and participate in separatist politics, authorities routinely detained him ahead of protests, marches and politically sensitive anniversaries.The four-month incarceration following the 2016 Burhan Wani uprising was particularly significant. Then the PSA detention in 2019, a month after the Pulwama Attack, therefore represented not his first encounter with preventive confinement, but an escalation – from episodic arrests designed to disrupt his political activity to sustained incarceration under preventive detention and, subsequently, terrorism prosecutions.In 2024, the Ministry of Home Affairs declared JKLF an “unlawful association” for a five-year duration with immediate effect under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had banned Malik’s outfit under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA). Prior to this action, the government had also banned Jamat-e-Islami (JeI-J&K) under Section 3(1) of the UAPA.The JKLF was similarly banned under the provisions of the UAPA, empowering the Centre to declare any association as unlawful by officially notifying it in the Official Gazette.This written submission follows an 82-page affidavit Malik filed in 2025 before the Delhi high court, asserting his identity as a non-violent political leader and urging the Government of India to honour commitments made to him during the 1990s.The final pages depart sharply from the language of mere legal defence. Malik begins by writing directly to his mother, his Pakistani wife Mashaal Mullick and his 13-year-old daughter Raziya Sultana, speaking of separating from his wife before he is “hanged”, describes spending his days in a death cell with only his daughter’s photograph, and ends by surrendering his fate to Allah. Malik has said he does not want to contest the proceedings and requests the capital punishment.He says, “Considering my personal circumstances and after deep reflection, I have decided not to contest the trial proceedings further. My decision shall not be treated as an admission of any prosecution fact, guilt or acceptance of the allegations made against me. I request for capital punishment.”In the last two decades, India has executed seven individuals convicted of being involved in serious crimes. These include Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta (Nirbhaya Case), Yakub Memon (1993 Mumbai Serial Bombings), Afzal Guru (2001 Indian Parliament attack) and Ajmal Kasab (2008 Mumbai attacks).