Separatist leader Yasin Malik once pleaded for his life before Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), intelligence sources told NDTV. The incident took place in 2013 during a tense phase in Kashmir’s separatist movement.
According to intelligence inputs, Lashkar operative Hilal Dar from Sopore was tasked in 2012 to assassinate Malik. Acting on ISI’s orders, he carried out a video recce of Malik’s residence in Srinagar’s Maisuma area. The plot was born after Pakistan suspected that Malik was secretly cooperating with Indian agencies. The earlier killing of his associate Molvi Showkat had already increased doubts about him.
Dar was later arrested in Srinagar. In his confession, he revealed that ISI and Lashkar wanted Malik eliminated for allegedly working with India’s Intelligence Bureau.
The turning point came after Afzal Guru’s hanging in 2013. Malik, then in Pakistan, led anti-India protests with Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed. During this period, sources say, Malik privately begged Saeed for mercy and promised to follow ISI’s orders.
Soon after, India cancelled Malik’s passport and denied his wife Mushaal Malik a visa. Later, he co-founded the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL). Since 2019, Malik has been jailed in Delhi’s Tihar Prison on terror funding charges.
