"Raises questions on UPA's handling of national security": BJP's Amit Malviya after Yasin Malik claims Manmohan Singh thanked him for meeting Hafiz Saeed

New Delhi [India], September 19 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) IT cell chief Amit Malviya has described as "shocking" the claim by Yasin Malik, the then chief of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Force (JKLF) that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had thanked Malik for having met with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan in 2006.
In an affidavit submitted to the Delhi high court, Malik, who is currently in Tihar Jail, said that after his meeting with Hafiz Saeed he had personally briefed PM Manmohan Singh and National Security Advisor MK Narayanan.
Sharing an X post, Amit Malviya called the development "shocking" and claimed that PM Manmohan Singh had expressed gratitude towards the terror-funding convict. Malviya questioned the UPA government's handling of national security.
The BJP leader wrote, "Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) terrorist Yasin Malik, serving a life sentence in a terror-funding case, has made a shocking claim. In an affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court on August 25, Malik says: He met Lashkar-e-Taiba founder and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan in 2006."
"The meeting was not his independent initiative but was arranged at the request of senior Indian intelligence officials as part of a back-channel peace process. After the meeting, then-PM Manmohan Singh personally thanked and expressed gratitude to him," the X post added.
Further, Malviya demanded "full force of law" against Malik and raised doubts over the then UPA government.
"Yasin Malik is a hardened terrorist who is guilty of gunning down three Air Force personnel in uniform. This amounts to waging war against the state, and he must be subjected to the full force of the law. If these new claims are true, they raise grave questions about the UPA's handling of national security and back-channel diplomacy," the X post read.
Malik, who is serving a life term in a terror-funding case, filed an affidavit claiming the meeting with Saeed and other leaders took place at the request of India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) during his Pakistan visit for earthquake relief work.
"Despite working to strengthen the peace table, my meeting was later distorted to brand me a terrorist," Malik said, calling it a case of "classic betrayal."
He alleged that after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, the 2006 meeting was shown out of context to justify invoking UAPA against him, even though he had carried out the talks openly and reported back to India's top leadership.
The affidavit comes as the Delhi High Court hears the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) appeal to enhance Malik's life term to a death sentence in a 2017 terror-funding case. The bench has asked Malik to file his reply by November 10. (ANI)