Jammu: A high-profile case involving the killing of four IAF personnel in Kashmir by militants, allegedly led by Yasin Malik, will finally see some movement next week after remaining stuck for almost three decades.
A day before Republic Day 1990, on the morning of 25 January, car-borne militants opened fire on a group of IAF personnel on the outskirts of Srinagar, killing Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna and three colleagues and leaving several injured.
During the subsequent investigation, several eyewitnesses identified Malik, among others, as being responsible for the firing.
Thirty years since, charges are yet to be framed in the case, though the CBI presented its chargesheet in November 1990, owing to a series of factors. Apart from the fact that successive governments were in back-channel talks with Malik, the separatist launched a legal bid to get the case shifted to Srinagar from Jammu.
On 26 April this year, the Jammu & Kashmir High Court lifted its stay on the trial, imposed in 2007, and rejected his plea to shift the trial. Malik is now supposed to appear in court on 11 September.
“Now non-bailable warrants have been issued to produce Malik in court on 11 September,” advocate Pavittar Singh Bhardwaj, the special public prosecutor for the CBI, told ThePrint at his Jammu residence. “Finally, things are moving.”
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The reinvention of a militant
Malik, the separatist leader of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was a militant before he gave up the gun in the mid-1990s.
A month before the IAF killings, he is believed to have played a role in the abduction of former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya during the latter’s stint as Union home minister. The removal of stay by the J&K High Court will set the ball rolling on this case as well.
As the peak of the Kashmir insurgency, the two episodes together helped Malik build an aura around himself, and take on the mantle of leader among Kashmiri “boys” involved in militancy through the JKLF.
Over the years, however, Malik has managed to reinvent himself as a non-violent separatist leader and marry a Pakistan national, though he was still photographed with 26/11 mastermind and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba chief Hafiz Saeed in 2013.
‘The wheels of justice’
By the end of 1990, the CBI had gathered evidence, witness statements and filed its chargesheet in a TADA court at Jammu since Malik and fellow accused had been booked under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).
“The chargesheet was presented in the designated court on 24 November 1990 but there has been no movement in the case since then,” said Bhardwaj.
“These people (Malik and his supporters) had powerful backers among the mainstream. It won’t be wrong to say that Malik and his fellow accused had supporters in positions of power. The wheels of justice were not allowed to move by vested interests,” he added.
Bhardwaj, a retired district and sessions judge, has been waging almost a lonely battle to ensure that Malik and other militants are brought to justice.
But the prosecution’s job to get a conviction against Malik, who is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in connection with an NIA terror-funding probe, may be easier said than done.
Of the 67 witnesses that the CBI had planned to present in court, several are dead while others have indicated that they are not available to testify.
Apart from Malik, others accused in the IAF case include B.A. Sofi, Mohd Rafiq Pehlu alias Nanaji, Javed Ahmed Mir and Showkat Ahmed Bakshi. At least three of the accused, including JKLF founder Amanullah Khan, the suspected mastermind of the attack, have passed away while four, who were declared absconders by the court on 17 September 1990, are yet to be arrested.
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Yasin Malik & J&K CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya Was A CONSPIRACY By Both These EVIL Islamist’s To Get India Release Islamic Terrorists!! Congress/Gandi/Khan Vinci Family NEVER Punished Them NOR Was Anything Done Against Those Who Did Hindu Genocide In Kashmir!!
There Are 100+ Islamic & Christian Nations, None Of The Islamic Nations Are Truly Secular Or Even Protect Rights Of Minority Muslims Like Shia Or Ahmedi’s!!
High Time India Is Declared A Hindu State With Some Tolerance For Non-Indic Religions!!
Yaseen Malik is a freedom fighter, bring Indian criminal 10 lakh forces killers of lakhs of JK civilian people,rapists Indian army to the justice, murderer of Gujrat modi the world recognized terrorist outfit RSS to justice.
PAKISTAN WILL DO A REPEAT OF BANGLADESH WITH PASHTUN’S, BALOCH & SINDHIS!! JUST WATCH!! PAKISTAN IS AN EVIL JIHADI STATE RUN BY SUNNI PUNJABI MUSLIMS!!
*Kashmir, Muslims & ISLAM Happier When Islamic Pakistan Helps China Rape Allah/Islam & Uighur Muslims In Xinjiang, China??!!*
Or Allah Happier When Pakistanis Kill Pashtun’s Baloch, Pakistani Kashmiri Muslims, Hindus & Christians??
The demography of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has changed drastically in last 30 years or so with 87% Pakistani Punjabi Muslims have inhabited there, with absolutely No sign of survival of Original Kashmiris (Shia Muslims) there!!
Pakistani military & terrorists have nexus!! They are on same page & have become enemies Of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) & Pakistan Itself!!_ We lived better life before annexation by #Pakistan & had more rights during Dogra rule, says member assembly #GilgitBaltistan, Nawaz Naji. He condemned PAKISTAN for encroaching on local lands!
THIS IS NOT NEWS FOR EVIL ISLAMISTS LIKE YOU WHO DO PROPAGANDA AGAINST INDIA!!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1163342114941480960
https://twitter.com/i/status/1162754048069685248
YOU ARE A LIAR AS MOST PAKISTANIS/MUSLIMS!!
YOU EVIL ISLAMISTS SUPPORT Jihadi Terrorist Military Dictatorship In Pakistan Despite Genocide & Suppression Of It’s Own
Muslim & Minority Population!!
And You Put Blame On India You Bigoted Animal??
Pakistani TERROR In POK, Baluchistan, Pashtunistan, Sindhustan Or
Afghanistan & India Is NOT Visible To Your Blind Islamic Faith Followers??!! !!
Baloch leader, A RARE HONEST MUSLIM #Brahumdagh @bBugti says, #Pakistan must SROP dreaming of occupying #Kashmir and #Afghanistan. Instead Islamabad should focus on its own backyard in
Balochistan, Sindh, and Pashtunistan which r being
oppressed by the Pakistan Army for 70 yrs!
https://twitter.com/TarekFatah/status/1172269252109373
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Makes me mad when you call a terrorist ‘militant’. He murdered 4 sons of India in cold blood and deserve to die like a worm.
J&K CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya Was A CONSPIRACY By Yasin Malik & Him!! These EVIL Islamist’s Wanted To Get India Release Islamic Terrorists!!
Congress/Gandi/Khan Vinci Family NEVER Punished Them NOR Was Anything Done Against Those Who Committed Hindu Genocide In Kashmir!!
Perhaps….but indian army has killed many times more than that number in jk……what should be their punishment? how should they die? killing injuring raping blinding even in minors by pellets
@Sunil – LIAR!! Pakistani Doing Islamic Taqiya & Faking Hindu Name!!
The case should have been taken. Out of kashmir and decided there .Even one eyewitness is enough to convict him
Better close all courts in India and the country will have a clear and speedy punishing system of criminals.
Such immature comments are not good.
I too agree such long delay in administering justice is bad,
Yes, it will happeen in sha Allah, after Gazwa-e-hind, the justice will be made in few moments through Islamic Sharia System. I wish you survive until then to enjoy that system of quick justice inn sha Allah.
The high court “lifted a stay imposed in 2007”. Court imposed delays are a key reason for the destruction of justice. The murderers of Nirbhaya are yet to face justice because the delays at the supreme court that have gone on for years. The editor of Tehelka delayed the trial by using stays that remained in place for years. By the time trail comes around, the witnesses are dead or paid off. The investigators have retired. Meanwhile, criminals, like Yasin Malik, run free committing more crimes.
Who is this Hussain in the comments. He is such an idiot.
Yasin Malik must be hanged to death.
Hussain, is your father, who speaks the true.
For Admin: I know you will not publish these comments, but at least you have red it.
@Hussain Is An EVIL Fatherless Islamist!! As All Pakistani Muslims, He Lies All The Time!!
He Wants Pakistan To Merge With India So That Indian Kashmir Can Be Pakistani Too!!