Court: Yasin prima facie responsible for killing IAF men
Srinagar: A Tada-court in Jammu on Saturday held Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muhammad Yasin Malik prima facie responsible for the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel, including a squadron leader in a sneak militant attack that took place here in early 1990. The court will give sanctions for framing of charges soon, sources said.
A Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) court in Jammu on Saturday held JKLF leader Muhammad Yasin Malik prima facie responsible for the killing of four IAF personnel, including a squadron leader, in a sneak militant attack that took place here in early 1990.
The court said that there is enough prima facie evidence to prosecute Malik. The court will give sanctions for framing of charges against the separatist leader soon, the sources said.
Malik was to be produced before the Tada court but it is learnt that the Union home ministry advised the concerned authorities against it. An earlier report had said that the JKLF leader might be produced in the court through video conferencing. The court which began trial in this case on October 1, 2019 had earlier issued production warrants against Malik and three other accused.
The JKLF leader is currently in judicial custody after he was placed under arrest by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with an alleged terror funding case. He was arrested by the J&K police from his residence in Srinagar’s Maisuma area on February 22 last year and subsequently detained under the erstwhile state’s stringent Public Safety Act (PSA). After his arrest by the NIA, he was lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail. The Centre had in March this year declared the JKLF as an unlawful association under Section 3 (1) of the Unlawful Prevention Act 1967, saying
Yasin Malik
the outfit is actively engaged in inciting secessionism and illegal funnelling of funds for fomenting terrorism in J&K.
The CBI had in October 2018 filed a case in special court in Jammu against him and others for allegedly killing four IAF personnel in Srinagar’s Rawalpora area on January 25, 1990.
In August and September 1990, the CBI had filed two chargesheets against Malik and other accused before the designated Tada court in Jammu. Besides the killing of IAF officials, Malik is also an accused in the kidnapping of the then Union home minister Mufti Muhammed Sayeed’s daughter Rubaya Sayeed in 1989.
In 1995, a single bench of the J&K high court stayed the trial as there was no Tada court in Srinagar. In 2008, Malik approached a special court, saying that the trial should be shifted to Srinagar as he was facing security problems in view of the Amarnath land row which had pitted Kashmir Valley against Jammu region of the State. The CBI filed objections and opposed the application, which was rejected in an order issued by the court on April 20, 2009.
However, in April last year decks were cleared for the trial of Malik in Tada court in Jammu.