Eyewitness identifies JKLF chief Yasin Malik as shooter behind 1990 killing of four IAF men

Former JKLF chief Yasin Malik accused of opening fire on IAF personnel in 1990, attends court proceedings via video.

JKLF chief Yasin Malik lifted his ‘pheran’, pulled out his gun and opened fire at a group of IAF personnel, an eyewitness deposed before a special CBI court on January 18 while narrating what happened in Srinagar on January 25, 1990.

Former IAF corporal Rajwar Umeshwar Singh, who survived the terror attack in which four IAF personnel were killed, pointed to Mr. Malik in the courtroom as the main shooter. Mr. Malik attended the court proceedings on video from Delhi’s Tihar Jail where he has been incarcerated since 2019.

Besides the four men, including squadron leader Ravi Khanna, who were killed, 40 people were injured on January 25, 1990, in Rawalpora on the outskirts of Srinagar. The IAF employees were waiting for their pickup to old Srinagar airfield for duty when they came under fire from terrorists.

A charge sheet was filed on August 31, 1990 against Mr. Malik and five others before the designated TADA Court at Jammu.

Besides Mr. Malik, others accused in the killing of the IAF personnel are JKLF operatives 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...,” said Senior Public Prosecutor for CBI Monika Kohli.

Ms. Kohli is the chief prosecutor in two key cases against Mr. Malik — the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and the killing of the IAF personnel.