JKLF chief Yasin Malik’s close confidante Shoukat Bakshi was identified by an eyewitness before a special court in Jammu on January 31, Saturday as one of the shooters involved in the January 1990 terror attack on a group of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in Srinagar. The significance of the identification lies in the progress that prosecution is making against the killers who were responsible for carrying out one of the most daring and heinous attacks on IAF men on January 25, 1990.
A couple of months before that, JKLF cadres had kidnapped Rubiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. These two incidents had created an aura around JKLF cadres that they were all powerful in Kashmir and it was their writ that ran, not that of the governments of the day. These two incidents had emboldened separatists and secessionists into giving anti-India statements almost on daily basis.
Ordinary readers can be forgiven for asking one question. Why the cases of these killers of JKLF still pending in the courts and trials going on? More than 35 years after the horrible incidents which virtually established JKLF as the leading group of terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir. Why is it that the legal process has been so tardy and slow in bringing these terrorists to book?
Article 370 Abrogation
Well, it will perhaps help to understand things better if we take into account this fact that the trials in many cases started in right earnest only in mid-2020. Prior to abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A, even framing of charges and thereby commencement of trials was not there. Before that, successive governments treated these JKLF terrorists with kid gloves and did not use the legal remedies available in our legal system to bring to heel.
Incidentally, a year ago, in January 2024, Yasin Malik was identified iin a special CBI court as the main shooter by former IAF Corporal Rajwar Umeshwar Singh, who survived the terror attack in which four IAF personnel were killed. Besides the four men, including Squadron Leader Ravi Khanna, who were killed, 40 people were injured in the incident on January 25, 1990, in Rawalpora on the outskirts of Srinagar. The IAF employees were waiting for a bus which was to pick them up and take them to the old Srinagar airfield. The wait at the designated spot for the arrival of bus turned into a nightmare as five JKLF terrorists led by Yasin Malik fired at them.
Chargesheet filing
A charge sheet was filed on August 31, 1990, against Malik and five others, including Bakshi, in the designated TADA court here. The others accused in the killing of the IAF personnel are JKLF operatives Ali Mohammed Mir, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi alias Mustafa, Javed Ahmed Mir alias ‘Nalka’, Javed Ahmed Zargar and Saleem alias Nanaji.
Bakshi was identified by the prosecution witness, an IAF employee and one of the survivors, according to Senior Additional Advocate General Monika Kohli, who is leading the prosecution team. Kohli, who is also a senior Public Prosecutor for the CBI, is representing the central agency along with Special Public Prosecutor S K Bhat in the case against Malik and others. They are also representing the CBI in the case related to the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed.
Details of accused
Javed Ahmad Mir, alias ‘Nalka’, a former commander of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and a prominent separatist leader, is presently in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Javed Mir was arrested by the Srinagar Police on December 9, 2025, from his residence in Zaina Kadal, Srinagar. He was detained in connection with a 29-year-old case (FIR No. 192/1996) registered at the Shergarhi Police Station. The charges relate to leading a violent procession in July 1996, which involved a clash with police at Naaz Crossing, Srinagar, following the killing of another militant, Hilal Ahmad Beigh.
He is accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the Arms Act, and various provisions of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), including rioting and endangering public safety. Following his arrest in December 2025, he was held at the Shergarhi Police Station in Srinagar for investigation. Mir remained active in separatist politics but had kept a low profile following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. He was also previously arrested in 2019 in connection with the 1990 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed and the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel, but was later out on bail. His arrest is part of a renewed crackdown on long-pending cases involving former militant commanders turned separatists in Kashmir.
Saleem alias “Nanaji” is a Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) operative and one of the accused in the 1990 killing of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel in Srinagar. Saleem is facing charges in the 1990 IAF personnel killing case in a special TADA court in Jammu. He has appeared in court for proceedings. He is listed among the accused in the 1990 killing of four IAF personnel along with Yasin Malik, Ali Mohammed Mir, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi (Mustafa), Javed Ahmed Mir (Nalka), and Javed Ahmed Zargar. He has been identified in reports as a JKLF operative and in some archival images as a former Kashmiri rebel commander.
Javed Ahmed Zargar is presently believed to be in Pakistan, participating in anti-India activities. Over the years, at least three dozen murder cases were registered against Zargar in Srinagar, including for killings of high-ranking Indian officers. Zargar was arrested on 15 May 1992 and imprisoned. He was released from jail on 31 December 1999 as part of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 hostage deal and provided safe passage to Pakistan. Shortly after that, Zargar revived Al-Umar Mujahideen (AUM) in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK).
Zargar was reportedly arrested by Pakistani authorities in 2002 but released later and he was living in Muzaffarabad without any restrictions. In March 2023, the Indian government declared Zargar an officially designated terrorist and the group Al-Umar-Mujahideen as a terrorist organization. Manzoor Ahmed Sofi, alias Mustafa, is an accused JKLF operative in the January 25, 1990, Rawalpora terror attack in which four IAF personnel were killed. As of March 2020, he was formally charged by a special TADA court in Jammu for murder and terrorism-related offences along side Yasin Malik and others.
Manzoor Ahmed Sofi (Mustafa) is listed as one of the key JKLF operatives accused in the 1990 killing of IAF personnel. Charges were framed against him and six others (including Yasin Malik, Javed Ahmed Mir, and Showkat Ahmed Bakshi) by a TADA court in Jammu in March 2020. The trial has been actively ongoing in the Jammu TADA court. As of January 31, 2026, witnesses are continuing to identify the accused individuals in court. While Yasin Malik is in Tihar Jail, the specific physical location (whether in custody or evading) of Manzoor Ahmed Sofi alias Mustafa is not clear although he remains a co-accused in active court proceedings.
