India frees Kashmiri separatist leader

Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik has been freed from prison in India.

He was arrested eight months ago for allegedly laundering money to finance terrorism.

Malik is one of the seven key decision-makers of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference which is the main Kashmiri separatist alliance.

The former militant leader whose Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front is now a separatist political party, was freed from the Kot Bhalwal prison outside Jammu.

He is set to fly back to the state's summer capital, Srinagar.

The release of Malik comes soon after the installation of a new government in the disputed province.

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has promised to improve the government's image and to provide a "healing touch" to the violence-scarred region where more than 61,000 people have died since 1989.

Malik was arrested in March on charges of smuggling $100,000 (€100,000) to finance anti-Indian militants in the Kashmir Valley.

Malik, who suffers from a heart ailment, was granted bail in July, after a court was told that his health had deteriorated. But within moments, he was re-arrested and booked under the Public Safety Act, under which he could be detained for two years without trial.