Delhi: Jailed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief leader Yasin Malik has stirred controversy with fresh claims in a sworn affidavit to the Delhi High Court, alleging that his 2006 meeting with Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan took place at the behest of Indian intelligence officers.

Malik, who is serving a life sentence for terror funding, went a step further by alleging that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally expressed gratitude to him after he held a meeting with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan in 2006.

According to reports from NDTV, the claim was made in an affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court on 25 April. Malik, who is serving a life sentence in a terror funding case, insisted that his engagement with Saeed was not his personal decision but was arranged at the request of senior Indian intelligence officers as part of a secret peace initiative with Pakistan.

The role of the Intelligence Bureau

Malik stated that before his visit to Pakistan following the devastating 2005 Kashmir earthquake, he was approached in Delhi by V K Joshi, then Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

According to him, Joshi requested that he use the opportunity to interact not just with Pakistani politicians but also with terrorist figures, including Saeed, in order to further the peace process led by then Prime Minister Singh.

Malik said he was clearly told that talks with Pakistan would not carry weight unless extremist leaders were also included. On this basis, he claimed, he agreed to meet Saeed and other members of the United Jihad Council during an event in Pakistan.

What happened during the Hafiz Saeed meeting?

The affidavit describes how Saeed organised a large gathering of jihadist groups, during which Malik addressed the crowd. He claimed that in his speech he appealed to militants to turn towards peace, citing Islamic teachings to argue that “if somebody offers you peace, purchase peace with him.”

Years later, this same meeting was projected as proof of Malik’s links with Pakistani terror groups. Malik, however, called it a “classic betrayal,” maintaining it was a government-backed mission that was later misused for political gains.

Prime Minister’s alleged response

Malik’s most explosive assertion relates to what followed when he returned to India. After debriefing with the IB, he said he was immediately asked to brief the Prime Minister.

“When I returned to New Delhi from Pakistan, Special Director IB VK Joshi as part of the debriefing exercise, met me in the hotel and requested me to immediately brief the Prime Minister,” Malik stated.

“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 added.

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

Malik’s interactions with other leaders

In his affidavit, Malik also recounted his interactions with several senior Indian leaders over the years, naming Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi, P Chidambaram, IK Gujral and Rajesh Pilot among them.

He stated, “After my arrest in 1990, I was actively engaged by six consecutive dispensations under the leadership of Shri VP Singh, Shri Chandra Shekhar, Shri PV Narasimha Rao, Shri HD Deve Gowda, 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.”

If Malik’s statements are proven true, they shed light on the secretive methods used in India’s backchannel peace initiatives with Pakistan. His assertion that Prime Minister Singh expressed personal thanks after his meeting with one of the world’s most wanted terrorists could trigger major political debate.

Malik has long been accused of violent crimes, including the killing of four Indian Air Force officers in Srinagar in January 1990 and the kidnapping of Rubiya Saeed, daughter of former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

The Kashmiri Pandit community also holds him responsible for the ethnic cleansing and exodus of their community in the early 1990s.