4 IAF personnel, including a squadron leader, were killed and 22 injured on January 25, 1990, at Rawalpora

JKLF chief Yasin Malik lifted his ‘pheran’, pulled out his gun and opened fire at a group of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel, an eyewitness deposed before a special CBI court on Thursday 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 Malik in the courtroom as the main shooter. 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 in the incident on January 25, 1990, in Rawalpora on the outskirts of Srinagar. The IAF employees were waiting for their pick-up to old Srinagar airfield for duty when they came under fire from terrorists.

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

Besides 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... the prosecution witness has identified Malik as the man behind the shooting,” said Senior Public Prosecutor for CBI Monika Kohli.

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

Malik was given an offer to cross-examine the eyewitness but he refused and has been pressing for physical appearing in court.

Courtesy: The Tribune India:  18th  Jan , 2024