NEW DELHI, Oct 26: JKLF chief Yasin Malik, regarded as the disputed region’s most eligible bachelor, is engaged to Mashal Malik, a Pakistani painter who is studying in London, the Indian Express reported on Sunday.

Mr Malik, 42, was in jail after his arrest in Srinagar last week, and got three of his friends in Pakistan to visit Karachi with a ring for the bride.

The JKLF chief was due to attend a conference in Islamabad on October 27 and had planned to get engaged during the trip, sources said.

But he was arrested four days before he could make the trip.

Mr Malik spent his engagement day at the Sumbal Police Station, the Express said.

It was on one of his trips to Pakistan that Mr Malik met Mashal.

Her father, a senior defence personnel in Pakistan, died a few years ago and her brother, a security affairs expert, teaches in a US university.

If released by then, Mr Malik plans to marry in January. Another separatist leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is currently struggling to renew the Indian visa of his American-born wife.

Mr Malik is one of the first five JKLF commanders who launched a militant movement in Kashmir in 1989.

Some time ago, Mr Malik had decided never to tie the knot because of the risks involved in his political activity.