Ex-JKLF leader held for killing 4 IAF men

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Javed Ahmed Mir, a former chief commander of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in connection with a case pertaining to the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in Srinagar’s Rawalpora area nearly three decades ago.

54-year-old Mir was picked up by the sleuths of CBI from his residence in Srinagar’s Jamalatta locality on Wednesday and later taken to Jammu. The CBI was assisted by the J&K police in effecting Mir’s arrest, the officials said. Mir was later produced before a CBI court in Jammu, which released him on bail, the officials said.

On January 25, 1990, four IAF personnel, including a squadron leader, were gunned down by suspected militants at Rawalpora when they were waiting for bus to relocate to an Air Force base near Srinagar airdrome. Around 40 others, including a woman, had received serious injuries in the attack.

In August and September 1990, the CBI had filed two chargesheets against Muhammad Yasin Malik, the incumbent JKLF chief, Mir and other accused before the designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) court at Jammu.

Malik who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail is being produced through video conferencing in a special Tada court in Jammu. He was arrested by the J&K police from his residence in Srinagar’s Maisuma area on February 22 this year and subsequently detained under the state’s stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).

The Centre had in March this year declared the JKLF as an unlawful association.