Yasin Malik
Yasin Malik’s double shock from jail: Announces divorce, refuses to defend himself in Sarla Bhat case
New Delhi/IBNS: Separatist leader and jailed chief of the banned Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Yasin Malik, has said he will not defend himself in the Sarla Bhat murder case, while maintaining that his decision does not amount to an admission of guilt, media reports said.
Malik conveyed his decision in a 25-page written statement submitted through his advocate before an Additional Sessions Court.
Yasin Malik refuses to defend himself
In his statement, Malik said he no longer wished to challenge the proceedings in the case involving the murder of Sarla Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit nurse.
Malik said he took the decision after "much deliberation" and performing Istikhara, an Islamic prayer traditionally offered before taking an important decision.
He claimed that he had been falsely implicated in the case due to the political circumstances at the time.
Malik announces divorce from wife
In the same 25-page statement, Malik also announced his decision to divorce his wife, Pakistani artist and activist Mushaal Hussein Mullick, whom he married in 2009.
The couple have a 13-year-old daughter, Razia Sultana.
Malik said he took the decision to part ways with his wife because, according to him, he had not been allowed to speak to her or meet her in jail for eight years.
Message to daughter
Explaining his decision, Malik said he wanted to free his daughter from the burden of the situation and give her an opportunity to start afresh.
In a message to Razia Sultana, he urged her to take care of her grandmother and mother and speak to her mother for "at least five minutes" every day.
Who was Sarla Bhat?
Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old Kashmiri Pandit nurse at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar, was abducted and killed in April 1990, during the early phase of militancy in Kashmir.
Her body was later recovered from the Mallabagh area.
In June 2026, the Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) filed a 737-page chargesheet in the case, naming Malik and other accused. The agency has described Malik as a key accused in the case.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
