Jailed Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik admitted to hospital in Delhi after hunger strike

New Delhi: Jailed Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik has been admitted to the RML hospital in New Delhi due to fluctuation in his blood pressure following his ongoing hunger strike in Tihar Jail, PTI cited sources as saying. Malik has reportedly written to the doctors at the hospital saying he did not want to be treated. “He was referred to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital on Tuesday due to some fluctuation in his blood pressure,” a senior prison official told IANS.

Malik, chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), has been on an indefinite hunger strike since July 22 morning after the Centre did not entertain his plea to physically appear in a Jammu court hearing the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case, in which he is an accused.

Malik has been kept in solitary confinement in a high-risk cell in Tihar’s prison number 7, which has earlier housed several high-profile criminals. 

The Kashmir separatist leader was arrested in early 2019 in connection with the 2017 terror funding case registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). On May 25 this year, Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment in the terror funding case. While pronouncing the verdict, Special Judge Praveen Singh also awarded varying jail terms for several offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to the JKLF chief including two life sentences. All the sentences are running concurrently. 

(With agency inputs)