On January 25, 1990, near Rawalpora, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Rajwar Umeshwar Singh, an IAF personnel waiting for the staff pickup van, saw a man take out a gun from under his ‘pheran’ and shoot fire, killing four soldiers. Rajwar, a survivor and key prosecution witness, positively recognised the shooter as Yasin Malik 34 years after the terrorist incident.
SRINAGAR: On January 25, 1990, Rajwar Umeshwar Singh witnessed a man draw a revolver from under his “pheran” and start fire on a group of IAF personnel who were waiting for the staff pickup bus at Rawalpora on the outskirts of Srinagar. Four soldiers were killed in the incident. The gunman was identified as Yasin Malik, the leader of the banned Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), by survivor and important prosecution witness Rajwar on Thursday, 34 years after the terrorist attack.
Deposing before a special CBI court in Jammu, the former IAF corporal pointed at Malik, who was attending the proceedings via video-conferencing from Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where he is serving life sentence in a terror funding case since 2019.
Malik was offered the chance to cross-examine the eyewitness, but he declined and insisted on being present in person for the hearing.
The next hearing was scheduled for February 15 by the court.
According to CBI attorney Monika Kohli, Malik’s identification by the eyewitness as the primary gunman was a major boost for the prosecution.
In addition to the four IAF men who were slain, Malik and a few other JKLF agents also caused injuries to twenty-two other individuals in the terror strike.
CBI filed a chargesheet against Malik and others before the designated TADA court in Jammu on August 31, 1990.
In March 2020, the special court framed charges against the JKLF chief and six others — Ali Mohammed Mir, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi alias Mustafa, Javaid Ahmed Mir alias Nalka, Showkat Ahmed Bakshi, Javed Ahmed Zargar and Nanaji.
Malik is also an accused in the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Rubayia had also recognised him, along with three others, as her kidnappers, in a TADA court in July 2022.