Yasin Malik Offers To Face Death Penalty In Sarla Bhat Murder Case, Announces Divorce From Pakistani Wife

Jailed separatist leader and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik has offered to face the death penalty in the 1990 murder case of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat, saying he will no longer contest the trial. In a separate development, Malik also announced his decision to end his 16-year marriage to Pakistani artist and activist Mushaal Hussein Mullick.

Currently lodged in Tihar Jail, Malik submitted a 25-page written statement before the Additional Sessions Court in Srinagar on Wednesday through his lawyer Abu Adil Pandit. The court has listed the matter for its next hearing on September 19.

Why Has Yasin Malik Refused To Contest The Trial?

In his statement, Malik said he no longer wished to defend himself in the Sarla Bhat murder proceedings and that the court could consider awarding him the death penalty.

“I will no longer contest the trial and the death penalty may be considered for me,” Malik said, while maintaining that his decision should not be treated as an admission of guilt.

He claimed he had been falsely implicated because of political circumstances and said he took the decision after “much deliberation” and after performing Istikhara, an Islamic prayer traditionally offered before making an important decision.

This is not the first time Malik has refused to contest a case against him. In May 2022, when a special NIA court in Delhi convicted him in a terror-funding case, Malik declined to contest the charges. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. The National Investigation Agency has since sought enhancement of his sentence to the death penalty.

Malik is also serving a life term in Tihar and is facing proceedings in a separate murder case in Jammu.

Yasin Malik Announces Divorce From Pakistani Wife

In the same statement, Malik announced that he was ending his marriage to Mushaal Hussein Mullick, whom he married in 2009. The couple have a 13-year-old daughter, Razia Sultana.

Mushaal, a Pakistani artist and activist, served as special adviser on human rights and women empowerment in Pakistan’s caretaker government from 2023 to 2025.

Malik said he had been unable to speak to his wife by phone or communicate with her through video calls for the past eight years while in jail. He also said he had been unable to maintain regular contact with his family.

“I have taken this decision with great pain. I don't want Mushaal to live her whole life carrying the burden of this situation or living like a widow. I want her to start a new chapter of her life with dignity and hope,” he wrote.

Malik also made an emotional appeal to his daughter, asking her to look after his mother and speak to her for at least five minutes every day so she feels the family’s support.

What Is The Sarla Bhat Murder Case?

Sarla Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit nurse at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar, was abducted in April 1990, during the peak of militancy in the Kashmir Valley. Her body was recovered days later.

Her killing became one of the cases that deepened fear and insecurity among the Kashmiri Pandit community. The case remained dormant for more than three decades before the State Investigation Agency (SIA) reopened it in 2025 and conducted raids at locations linked to Malik and other accused.

The chargesheet named Malik, Khurshid Ahmed Chalku, Abdul Hameed Sheikh, Mohammad Yusuf Sofi and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo. Chalku remains absconding, while Sofi, Sheikh and Taploo are dead, leaving Malik as the key living accused in the case.