IAF Personnel 1990 Killing Case: Eyewitness Identifies Yasin Malik As Main Shooter During Special CBI Court Hearing

A crucial eyewitness identified Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik during prosecution in the killing case of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in Rawalpora of Srinagar outskirts.

As per NDTV, Malik was identified by Rajwar Umeshwar Singh as the main shooter who killed IAF officer Ravi Khan and three others by firing and injured 22 in the shootout on 25 January 1990.

The hearing was conducted before a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Srinagar virtually from Delhi's Tihar Jail, where Malik has been lodged since 2018.

Malik was arrested in 1990 for the killings and the charge sheet was filed by the CBI the same year but the trial went cold. He was subsequently released in 1994 and claimed to have “renounced violence and became a Gandhian”.

Malik was the general secretary of Islamic Students League (ISL) and went to Pakistan for training. In 1989, he returned to the valley and turned to terrorism militancy as a core member of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).

His JKLF was banned by the centre in March 2019 under the anti-terror law for "promoting" secession of the state from the Union of India.

Besides being tried for the murder of IAF officers, Malik has already been awarded life imprisonment under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), in a terror funding case.

National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sought a death penalty for him citing the killing of four IAF personnel, and kidnapping of Dr Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayyed.