A sessions court in Srinagar has reopened the case against Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, accused of killing Kashmiri Pandits during an armed rebellion in the 1990s. The court will hear the matter on April 16. Satish Tikku was shot dead on February 2, 1990 in the Habba Kadal area of Srinagar. Acting on the petition of Tikku’s family, the court has taken this action.
Satish Tikku’s brother-in-law Pradeep Kaul said the matter is sub-judice, so the family would not comment. He said that we have full faith in the law. The media has already created an uproar regarding this matter. We want things to go according to the law. Actually, the film Kashmir Files has again started the discussion on the killings and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. The banned organization Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has been largely blamed for the violence, which demanded an independent Kashmir.
Karate admits to killing 20 pundits
Along with karate, Yasin Malik is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on charges of funding terrorist activities in Kashmir from Pakistan. The NIA arrested Karate in 2017 and Malik in February 2019. Bitta Karate was initially arrested in 1990. He had admitted on camera that he had killed 20 Pandits on the orders of JKLF leaders. Karate later denied this, saying that he made this statement under pressure. Karate was released in 2006 over lack of evidence and the “disinterest” of the prosecution.
’31 years have passed, justice must be done’
Farooq Ahmed Dar got the name Bitta Karate because he was trained in martial arts. Karate grew up in the old city of Srinagar’s Guru Bazar area, which was a hotbed of insurgency in the 1990s. He dropped out of high school, which had several pundits teachers. Advocate Utsav Bains said that the victim’s family should get justice. 31 years have passed and the family does not know what happened to the matter.