SRINAGAR: Weeks, after a special court gave him twin life sentences, Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik, is reported to be on a hunger strike in Tihar jail. He has been seeking a “fair trial”.

“The jail officials met with him and asked him about his demand,” The Indian Express reported. “He told them that his case is not being investigated properly and the jail officials tried to convince him to end his strike, but he refused.” The newspaper said he refused to eat anything since Friday.

Malik has earlier told a court that he would personally cross-examine Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former Home Minister Mufti Sayeed, who has identified him as one of her kidnappers. Rubaiya’s kidnapping was a major milestone in Kashmir’s militant history. The 1989 case was reported by a federal investigating agency almost three decades later.

Malik is in custody since 2019 when NIA arrested him in a terror funding case. On May 25, he was convicted by the court after he accepted the charges levelled against him. After being convicted in one case, he is currently facing trial in the Rubaiya kidnapping case.

“Dar said Malik had originally decided to begin the hunger strike from July 12, a day before the last court hearing, which he postponed for 10 days on the request of jail authorities so that they had some time to take up the issue with concerned higher authorities,” Hindustan Times quoted a spokesman of the banned outfit, JKLF saying.

Kolkata-based newspaper, The Telegraph reported that Malik had told his family members of his strike when they visited him on July 19. The family members also released an 8-page document to the media, the newspaper reported.

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