Eyewitness Identifies Yasin Malik As Shooter In 1990 Attack On Air Force Men

A former Indian Air Force (IAF) staffer and a crucial eyewitness for the prosecution identified separatist leader Yasin Malik as the main shooter who fired at and killed four IAF men outside Srinagar in 1990.

IAF officer Ravi Khan and three others were killed, while 22 were injured in a shootout carried out by Yasin Malik on January 25, 1990, in Rawalpora on the outskirts of Srinagar.

Rajwar Umeshwar Singh identified Malik when he was produced before a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Srinagar virtually from Delhi's Tihar Jail. Malik has been lodged here since 2018.

What Happened In 1990

A group of terrorists, allegedly led by Yasin Malik, fired at Indian Air Force personnel in Srinagar on January 25, 1990. Four were killed and 22 were injured. Malik was a leader of JKLF, a terrorist group, at the time.

Malik was arrested in 1990. The charge sheet was filed by the CBI the same year but the trial went cold.

The separatist leader was released in 1994 and the 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.

Who Is Yasin Malik?

Yasin Malik began as a mainstream political activist, who switched to terrorism and then joined mainstream separatism in the mid-1990s.

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

In April 2019, Malik was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with a terror funding case, a month after his group was banned by the Centre.