Kashmir: JKLF chief goes on fast for Delhi blast convicts

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik on Wednesday went on a day-long fast near the JKLF headquarters in Srinagar to protest the death sentence awarded to two locals in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case.

Mirza Nissar Hussain, a resident of Shamswari, and Mohammad Ali Bhat from Hasnabad in Srinagar were awarded the death penalty by a Delhi court on April 22.

The separatist leader began his fast, along with scores of his supporters, in the uptown Maisuma locality of the capital city.

The JKLF chairman has decided to launch a campaign against the death sentences to Bhat and Hussain.

Hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has already announced a fund raising campaign in Kashmir to provide legal defence to the convicts.