New Delhi: Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik is set to face trial for killing four Indian Air Force (IAF) officers on 25 January 1990. Malik, a former militant who had given up guns in the mid-1990s, allegedly led a group of militants who shot squadron leader Ravi Khanna and three others, besides injuring several other IAF personnel.
A Jammu court will start hearing the case from 1 October.
On 26 April, the Jammu and Kashmir high court had lifted the stay on Malik’s trial by a single-judge bench in 1995. It also struck down the transfer of the trial to Srinagar passed by another single-bench of the high court in 2008.
The special court also issued summons to Malik and three others for the killing of the IAF officers.
On 22 March, the Union home ministry had also banned the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a separatist organization run by Malik, for its alleged role in promoting secessionist activities in the region, under various provisions of the recently modified Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
In 1989, Malik was also named as the main accused in the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
In 1990, two chargesheets were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Malik before the designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) court in Jammu.
Malik is currently lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail under the Public Safety Act.
The separatist leader was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 22 February from his Maisuma residence in Srinagar, following the Pulwama suicide attack on a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force, (CRPF) resulting in the deaths of 40 security personnel. The JKLF chief was arrested in a case related to terror financing, as part of the probe agency’s crackdown against separatist leaders in the Kashmir valley.
