Yasin Malik appears before TADA court

Ishfaq Tantry
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, October 23

For the first time in over two decades, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik today made an appearance before an anti-terrorism court in Jammu in the case involving the killing of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in a militant attack on Srinagar outskirts in 1990.

Malik, who is lodged at a high-security jail in an alleged terror-funding case, made his appearance before a special TADA court in Jammu via videoconferencing.

Earlier, on October 17, JKLF ex-commander Javed Ahmad Mir was produced before the TADA court in the same case after he was arrested by CBI sleuths during a raid in Srinagar and granted bail.

During the first proceedings in the Indian Air Force personnel killing case, there were arguments on the charges and appearance of Malik before the court in the matter, a senior CBI counsel told The Tribune. He said the matter had been now posted for further arguments next month. In the court, Malik was represented by his lawyer who submitted his arguments.

Unidentified militants had fired upon IAF employees living as tenants in Rawalpora on Srinagar outskirts on January 25,1990, at the  Sanant Crossing when they were waiting for their office vehicles.

In the indiscriminate firing, four IAF personnel, including Sq Ldr Ravi Khanna, were killed while 40 employees, including a woman, were injured. Among the killed, two persons had died on the spot while the assailants had escaped from the scene.

The CBI, which investigated the case, had chargesheeted Malik, Javed Mir and four others before the TADA court in Jammu in the same case. However, Malik was granted stay on trial by the J&K High Court in 1999.

Acting on a plea by the CBI, the J&K High Court had on March 13 this year allowed the transfer of proceedings and writ petitions in the case to Jammu.