Islamabad – Mushaal Hussein Mullick, Chairperson of the Peace & Culture Organization, former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Human Rights, and wife of jailed Kashmiri leader Mohammad Yasin Malik, has written to Indian National Congress General Secretary Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, urging her to intervene before 10 November to stop the hanging proceedings against her husband.
In her letter, Mullick recalls that Pakistan and India once pursued serious peace talks where Yasin Malik was a vital interlocutor. “He laid down arms for dialogue, embraced Ahimsa, and became a bridge between peoples,” she wrote.
“Seven successive Indian Prime Ministers, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, trusted him for peace-building. To now brand him a terrorist and hang him is hypocrisy that threatens to bury reconciliation.”
Mullick warned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s revocation of Articles 370 and 35A has already inflamed tensions, and Yasin Malik’s execution would bring the subcontinent “dangerously close to catastrophe.” She said:
“The timing of this hearing is no coincidence, it coincides with elections. History shows that war hysteria or accelerated hanging proceedings are used for political gain. This misuse of courts risks dragging Pakistan and India back to the brink of war this time between two nuclear-armed states.”
Highlighting the human cost, she spoke of their 13-year-old daughter Raziyah Sultan, who has not seen her father for 11 years, sleeps with his photo under her pillow, and writes letters she cannot send.
Appealing to Priyanka Gandhi’s moral courage, Mullick said:
“Your forgiveness of your father’s assassins moved me to approach you. Standing for humanity in an age of hatred is almost impossible, but I see hope in you , that you will defy hate, bear the political cost of peace, and speak when silence is politically convenient.”
Mullick urged Congress leaders, world parliaments, and global human rights bodies including the United Nations, the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to press for a fair trial, oppose the death sentence, and protect fragile hopes for peace in South Asia.
“Executing Yasin Malik would not end violence it would sanctify it,” she warned. “This is not just about one man. It is about whether the world chooses peace over vengeance, humanity over retribution, and justice over political convenience.”
