Malik, six others charged with killing of 4 IAF officers
JAMMU: A Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court in Jammu on Monday framed charges against Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik and six others for their alleged involvement in the killing of four Indian Air Force personnel 30 years back in Kashmir.
Additional public prosecutor Rakesh Singh said five of the seven were produced before the court while Malik and Showkat Bakshi, who are lodged in jails in Delhi and Ambedkar Nagar, respectively, appeared via videoconferencing.
“Yasin Malik and Showkat Bakshi pleaded not guilty and wanted a trial. Five other accused also want a trial. Now, the case will be listed for further hearing on March 30,” said Singh.
The court on Saturday said there was enough prima-facie evidence for the prosecution of the seven accused under Indian
Penal Code’s Section 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), as well as the Arms Act and TADA, which was repealed in 2004.
Shalini Khanna, 70, whose husband Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna was one of the four IAF personnel killed, hoped that justice will finally be done. “...the charges should have been framed 30 years ago. The trial is yet to start and it is not an easy task [to get justice]...,” said Khanna. “However, it is better late than never,” she added.
Khanna said the development has rekindled hope for justice and that she believes that it will be done to her, families of those killed and to Malik as well.
“Yasin Malik not only murdered Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna but also murdered my mother-in-law, my father-in-law and my mother. The childhood of my two small children was lost and our happiness was snatched away in a second. This terrorist turned our world upside down,” Khanna told HT in September last year.
The four IAF personnel were killed on January 25, 1990, at Rawalpora in Srinagar when they were fired upon. As many as 36 personnel were injured in the attack.
Malik, whose Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front was proscribed in 2019, is also facing trial for kidnapping then Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s daughter, Rubaiyya Sayeed, in 1989. Five militants were released in exchange for her release.