Yasin Malik’s Hearing In 29-Year-Old IAF Personnel Killing Case Deferred Till October 23

A special court has deferred the hearing till October 23 in a case registered against Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik for killing 4 IAF personnel on the outskirts of Srinagar city on January 25, 1990. The court also allowed Malik to be produced before the Court via video conferencing. Malik is currently in Tihar jail in connection with terror funding case and his outfit was recently banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The IAF case relates to an incident that occurred on January 25, 1990 at Rawalpora, Srinagar. Air Force employees were fired upon by terrorists in which 40 of them, including a woman, received serious injuries and four personnel were killed on the spot.

Two charge sheets were filed by the CBI in August and September of 1990 against Malik before the designated TADA court in Jammu. In 1995, he was granted a stay on trial by a single bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court 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 row -- an agitation which had divided people of Kashmir and Jammu on religious lines over the issue of leasing out land to outsiders during the annual pilgrimage.

The CBI filed objections and opposed the application, which was rejected in an order dated April 20, 2009.

Finally, decks were cleared this April for the trial of Malik in Jammu in the two cases after standing counsel for CBI, Monika Kohli, argued before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that the agency had opposed transfer of cases to Srinagar which was rejected.

She also informed the court that petitions challenging the order of TADA court were filed with the high court but these could not be heard.

Highlighting CBI's objections, Kohli also informed Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta that the TADA court in Srinagar was abolished and the designated court in Jammu was given jurisdiction throughout the state with its headquarters in Jammu in May 1990.

In a 27-page judgment, Justice Gupta, while vacating the order by a single bench, said, "... From bare perusal of contents of petitions and relief sought therein, one can definitely come to conclusion that petitioners (Malik) have sought transfer of their cases from designated court Jammu to additional court at Srinagar, which is not permissible under law."

Malik was a militant before he gave up arms in the mid-1990s.