Yasin Malik claims he met Hafiz Saeed in 2006 at IB's behest, says Manmohan Singh thanked him after Pak trip

Yasin Malik - File Photo

In a sworn affidavit submitted to the Delhi High Court in April this year, jailed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yasin Malik has alleged that his now-infamous 2006 meeting with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan was not an independent initiative but part of a covert Indian backchannel, reports NDTV.

Malik, who is serving a life sentence for terror funding, claims the meeting was held at the behest of senior Indian intelligence officials during a period of intense, behind-the-scenes diplomacy between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Alleged role of the intelligence bureau

Malik has described in his affidavit how then Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau, VK Joshi, met him in Delhi before his Pakistan visit in the aftermath of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. Joshi allegedly urged him to use the opportunity to engage not only with Pakistan’s political leadership but also with terrorists such as Saeed.

Malik says he was told that “dialogue with Pakistan could not be meaningful unless terrorist leaders were also brought into the conversation.” Acting on this request, he claims, he agreed to meet Saeed and other members of the United Jihad Council at a function in Pakistan.

The meeting with Hafiz Saeed

Malik’s affidavit offers a detailed description of his encounter with Saeed. According to him, Saeed organised a gathering of jihadist groups where Malik delivered a speech calling on militants to embrace peace. Quoting Islamic teachings, he said he urged them to “purchase peace” if it was offered. Malik contends that what later became a public relations disaster for him was in fact a “classic betrayal” of an assignment he undertook for the Indian government, one which was later distorted for political ends.

Prime Minister’s alleged response

The most explosive claim concerns what Malik says happened after he returned to India. He alleges that after being debriefed by the IB, he was asked to brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally. “When I returned to New Delhi from Pakistan, Special Director IB V K Joshi as part of the debriefing exercise, met me in the hotel and requested me to immediately brief the Prime Minister,” Malik states.

“I met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the same evening where N K Narayan, National Security Advisor, was also present. I briefed him on my meetings and appraised him on the possibilities, where he conveyed his gratitude to me for my efforts, time, patience and dedication,” he adds.

On a photograph of him shaking hands with Singh, the jailed terrorist writes: “When I met Manmohan Singh as PM, without any hesitation he said, I consider you father of non-violent movement in Kashmir.”

A long history of high-level engagement

Malik’s affidavit also recounts his interactions with top political figures over decades. “After my arrest in 1990, I was actively engaged by six consecutive dispensations under the leadership of Shri VP Singh, Shri ChandraShekhar, Shri PV Narsimha Rao, Shri HD Devagauda, Shri Inder Kumar Gujral, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee till Shri Manmohan Singh. Not only I was provided domestic platform to speak about the Kashmiri cause, but I was actively roped in time and again by the said governments in power and was actively persuaded to speak on international platforms,” he writes.

The shadow of terrorism

Malik’s claims, if taken at face value, paint a disquieting picture of India’s covert outreach to Pakistan in the mid-2000s, where separatists and even figures accused of violence were allegedly used as intermediaries. The assertion that a sitting Indian Prime Minister expressed gratitude after a meeting with one of the world’s most wanted terrorists could spark a major political storm.

Malik is accused of killing four Indian Air Force officers in January 1990 in Srinagar and of kidnapping former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubiya Saeed. The Kashmiri Pandit community has long held him responsible for the brutal ethnic cleansing and mass exodus of their community from the Valley since 1990.