OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: India’s top anti-terrorism investigation agency Friday again sought the death sentence for a leading Kashmiri leader after he was given life in prison, official sources said.

Muhammad Yasin Malik, 57, chief of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), pleaded guilty last year to funding terrorism after refusing to accept a government-appointed lawyer or to defend himself against the charges.

The court turned down a plea by the National Investigation Agency for a death sentence, saying capital punishment was for a crime that “shocks the collective consciousness” of society.

On Friday the NIA petitioned the High Court in New Delhi again seeking death sentence for Malik, a senior security official in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) told AFP.

The petition is due for hearing on Monday, legal news website Bar and Bench reported.