Plea seeks trial against Bitta Karate for ‘murder’

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, March 31

A local court heard a plea seeking opening of a criminal trial against separatist Farooq Ahmed Dar, also known as Bitta Karate, in connection with the murder of Kashmiri Pandit businessman Satish Tickoo in 1990.

The case has been listed for further hearing on May 4. Advocate Utsav Bains, who filed the application on behalf of Tickoo’s family, hoped that justice would prevail.

Bains said they plan to submit a video in which Karate has confessed killing Tickoo. In the video, he says that he did so because Tickoo was a member of the RSS. The other side argued that a PIL seeking investigation into the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley was dismissed by the Supreme Court, but the family had the right to take the other side for a criminal trial under criminal law.

Tickoo was shot dead on February 2, 1990 in Habba Kadal locality in Srinagar. Dar and Yasin Malik, prominent leaders of the JKLF, have been accused of killing Pandits.

Both are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on charges of funneling funds from Pakistan into terror activities in Kashmir. The NIA had arrested Karate in 2017 and Malik in February 2019.

Karate was initially arrested in 1990. He had admitted on camera to having killed 20 Pandits on the orders of JKLF leaders. He later denied it, saying he gave the statement under duress.

In 2006, Karate was released due to lack of evidence and “disinterest” of the prosecution.

THE CASE

• Farooq Ahmed Dar, also known as Bitta Karate, is said to have murdered several Kashmiri Pandits, including businessman Satish Tickoo, in 1990s.
• Karate and Yasin Malik, both leaders of the JKLF, are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on charges of funneling funds from Pakistan into terror activities.

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