- By Abhishek Sheoran
- Thu, 18 Jan 2024 04:19 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
An eyewitness on Thursday identified JKLF chief Yasin Malik as the shooter who killed four Indian Air Force (IAF) men outside Srinagar in 1990, news agency PTI reported. Malik lifted his ‘pheran’, pulled out his gun and opened fire at a group of IAF personnel, the eyewitness, Rajwar Umeshwar Singh, said to a special CBI court.
Singh was also among the personnel attacked by Malik. He, however, survived the attack.
In the courtroom, Former IAF corporal Singh said Malik, who virtually attended the hearing from Delhi's Tihar Jail, was the main shooter.
"This is an important development in the case... the prosecution witness has identified Malik as the man behind the shooting," the news agency quoted Senior Public Prosecutor for CBI, Monika Kohli, as saying.
The incident:
An attack on the IAF men happened on January 25, 1990, at Rawalpora, Srinagar when terrorists opened fire on them injuring 40 and killing four. The IAF personnel were waiting for their pickup to the old Srinagar airfield for duty when they came under fire from terrorists.
A chargesheet in the case was filed in 1990 against Malik and five others before a designated TADA court in Jammu. Other JKLF operatives, who were booked in the attack include Ali Mohammed Mir, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi alias Mustafa, Javed Ahmed Mir alias 'Nalka', Showkat Ahmed Bakshi, Javed Ahmed Zargar and Nanaji.
Malik was arrested in 1990. The charge sheet was filed by the CBI the same year but the trial went cold. The separatist leader was released in 1994 and the High Court stayed his trial in 1995.
Yasin Malik is currently serving life imprisonment in Tihar. He was arrested in a terror-funding case by the National Investigative Agency (NIA).
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He has been facing a plethora of charges, including the kidnapping of Rubaiyya Sayeed, daughter of the former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in December 1989.