JKLF chief Yasin Malik raised his ‘pheran’, drew out his revolver, and started the fire on a group of IAF personnel, says an eyewitness who testified before a special CBI court on Thursday (17th January) describing what happened in Srinagar on the 25th of January 1990.
Former IAF corporal Rajwar Umeshwar Singh, who survived the terror attack that killed four IAF soldiers, identified Malik in court as the principal gunman. Malik watched the court hearings via video from Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where he has been detained since 2019.
Besides the four men murdered, including squadron leader Ravi Khanna, 40 more were injured on January 25, 1990, in Rawalpora, on the outskirts of Srinagar. The IAF employees were waiting for their pickup to the old Srinagar airfield for duty when they came under fire from terrorists.
On the 31st of August 1990, a charge sheet was submitted to the designated TADA Court in Jammu against Malik and five other individuals.
Besides Malik, other accused in the assassination of the IAF personnel are JKLF operators Ali Mohammed Mir, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi alias Mustafa, Javed Ahmed Mir alias ‘Nalka’, Showkat Ahmed Bakshi, Javed Ahmed Zargar, and Nanaji.
“This is an important development in the case. The prosecution witness has identified Malik as the man behind the shooting,” said Senior Public Prosecutor for CBI Monika Kohli.
Kohli is the lead prosecutor in two major cases against Malik: the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then-Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and the murder of IAF servicemen.
Malik was offered the opportunity to cross-examine the eyewitness, but he rejected it and has been lobbying for a physical appearance in court.
