Jammu: An eyewitness before the special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Thursday, January 18, named Hurriyat leader and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik as the primary gunman who fired on Indian Air Force soldiers in Srinagar in 1990, according to PTI.
Four IAF troops, including a squadron leader, died and 22 others were injured in the event, which happened on January 25, 1990, near Rawalpora, on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Malik, who is lodged at Tihar Jail, was shown before the court via video. During the legal procedures, Malik was recognised by a prosecution witness, a former IAF employee, Rajwar Umeshwar Singh.
“This is a significant advancement in the case,” senior CBI Public Prosecutor Monika Kohli said, adding, “The prosecution witness has named Malik as the person responsible for the shooting.”
Who is Yasin Malik?
Initially a mainstream political activist, Yasin Malik turned to armed struggle, eventually embracing separatism in the mid-1990s. He has been accused of being involved in the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, who was the daughter of then Union home minister and former J&K chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
A month after the Center outlawed his group JKLF in April 2019, Malik was taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in relation to a case involving terror funding.
What happened in 1990?
Shots were fired at Indian Air Force soldiers in Srinagar on January 25, 1990 by a group of militants who were purportedly led by Yasin Malik. There were 22 injuries and four fatalities. At the time, Malik led the militant organisation JKLF, which later gave up arms.
The year 1990 saw the arrest of Malik. The CBI submitted the charge sheet the same year. However, the trial was unsuccessful.
In 1994, the separatist commander was set free, and in 1995, the Jammu & Kashmir high court postponed his trial.
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