Name Of IAF's Ravi Khanna, Killed Allegedly By Yasin Malik, To Be Included On National War Memorial

The name of Indian Air Force’s Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna, who was allegedly killed by Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik in 1990, will be included on the National War Memorial in Delhi, top sources told news agency ANI. According to the news agency, The IAF approved the case to include Khanna’s name on the memorial.

The war memorial has the names of all the defence personnel killed in different operations on its walls. Khanna and three IAF personnel were killed on January 25, 1990 in a terror attack by JKLF terrorists.

Malik, a former terrorist who had given up guns in the mid-1990s, allegedly led a group of terrorists who shot Khanna and three others, besides injuring several other IAF personnel.

A Jammu court started hearing the case from October 1. On April 26, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had lifted the stay on Malik’s trial by a single-judge bench in 1995. It also struck down the transfer of the trial to Srinagar passed by another single-bench of the high court in 2008.

The special court also issued summons to Malik and three others for the killing of the IAF officers.

On March 22, the Union home ministry had also banned the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a separatist organisation run by Malik, for its alleged role in promoting secessionist activities in the region, under various provisions of the recently modified Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

In 1989, Malik was also named as the main accused in the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

In 1990, two chargesheets were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Malik before the designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) court in Jammu.

Malik is currently lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail under the Public Safety Act.

The separatist leader was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on February 22 from his Maisuma residence in Srinagar, following the Pulwama suicide attack on a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Force, (CRPF) resulting in the deaths of 40 security personnel. The JKLF chief was arrested in a case related to terror financing, as part of the probe agency’s crackdown against separatist leaders in the Kashmir valley.