Srinagar: A prominent advocate for Kashmiri independence and former rebel leader was given life in prison on Friday, but India's top anti-terrorism investigation agency sought the death penalty once more, according to official sources.
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muhammad Yasin Malik, 57, entered a guilty plea to funding terrorism last year after refusing to accept a government-appointed attorney or to stand trial.
The court rejected the National Investigation Agency's request for the death penalty, stating that it should only be used in cases where the crime "shocks the collective consciousness" of society.
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According to a senior security official in Indian-run Kashmir, the NIA petitioned the High Court in New Delhi on Friday once more to sentence Malik to death.
Monday is the scheduled hearing date for the petition, according to the legal news website Bar and Bench.
In 1989, Malik's JKLF led an armed uprising in Kashmir's Indian-controlled sector (part of which has been governed by Pakistan since 1947) in an effort to wrest control of the entire former kingdom from both nations.
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Tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and rebels have died in the conflict as a result of India's massive military response. Malik gave up violence in 1994 and began a nonviolent independence campaign. He met with Indian leaders, including two prime ministers, during the ensuing years.
He was arrested in 2018, months before New Delhi revoked the restive region's semi-autonomy and imposed a lockdown and months-long communications blockade. He had previously served 14 years in prison, during which time he claimed to have been tortured.
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Since then, the Muslim-dominated region has experienced simmering tension as many accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, of attempting to alter the region's demographic composition.
Malik became well-known in 1990 after his group kidnapped the interior minister's daughter in India and exchanged five other prisoners for her release.