TADA court frames charges against JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik in IAF killing case

A special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity (TADA) court on Monday framed charges against Yasin Malik and four others in connection with the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel on January 25, 1990.

The charges were framed under section 302, 307 RPC, Section3 (3) and Section 4(1) of TADA Act, 1987 and Section 7/27 of Arms Act 1959, Section 120-B of RPC.

Malik, chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, however, denied the charges that were sent to him through an email in the morning, reports said. The case had come up for hearing after the court had given a go-ahead for the framing of charges and prosecution of Malik last week. The next hearing has been scheduled for March 30.

On the morning of 25 January 1990, car-borne militants opened fire on a group of IAF personnel on the outskirts of Srinagar, killing Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna and three colleagues and leaving several injured. During the subsequent investigation, several eyewitnesses identified Malik, among others, as being responsible for the firing.

In another case against Malik regarding his involvement in the kidnapping of Rubaya Sayyed in 1989, daughter of Mufti Muhammad Sayed, the then Union Home Minister, will be heard on March 20.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has requested the court for fast-tracking of the hearing on a daily basis. Malik had joined JKLF in 1989 after the controversial 1987 Assembly elections, and later became JKLF chief after the killing of group’s chief Ashfaq Majeed on March 31, 1990.

He was charge-sheeted by the CBI before the TADA court in Jammu on August 31, 1990, in connection with the killing of IAF personnel. He was arrested by the NIA last year and is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in alleged terror funding case.