Eyewitness identifies Yasin Malik as shooter who killed four IAF men in 1990

Srinagar: A former Indian Air Force (IAF) staffer and a key prosecution eyewitness on Thursday identified JKLF chief Yasin Malik as the main shooter who fired at and killed four IAF men on the outskirts of Srinagar in 1990.

On the morning of January 25, 1990, car-borne militants opened fire on a group of IAF personnel on the outskirts of Srinagar, killing Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna and three colleagues and leaving several injured. During the subsequent investigation, several eyewitnesses identified Malik, among others, as being responsible for the firing.

Rajwar Umeshwar Singh, a former IAF staffer and eyewitness for the prosecution, identified Malik who was produced before a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Srinagar through video conferencing from Delhi's Tihar Jail, where he has been incarcerated since 2019.

58-year-old Malik, who is serving life term in Delhi’s Tihar jail in a terror funding financing case, was not produced in the court physically due to a Ministry of Home Affairs order restricting his movement.

Malik had joined JKLF in 1988 after the controversial 1987 assembly elections, and later became JKLF chief after the killing of group’s chief Ashfaq Majeed on March 31, 1990. He was arrested in August 1990 and charge sheet was filed by the CBI same year but the trial went cold.

The JKLF chief was released in 1994 and J&K High Court stayed his trial in 1995. Following his release, Malik split the JKLF. While he led the non-violent separatist faction, founder Amanullah Khan continued to lead the violent faction.

He is also an accused in the December 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.