Ex-militant in NIA net, 19 Pandit families hope to get justice

After a wait of 27 years, the families of those allegedly killed by former Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front militant Farooq Ahmed Dar, alias Bitta Karate, are hopeful of justice after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) started a probe into the shady financial transactions of separatists, including Dar.
Dar is accused of killing 19 Pandits. In a video interview after his arrest in 1990, he had boasted of how he executed the murders. Among the victims was a social activist, Satish Tikku, 26, brutally gunned down on February 2, 1990, outside his home in Srinagar.
Keenly tracking Dar’s questioning by the NIA, Satish’s brother Maharaj Krishan Tikku wants the government to constitute a judicial commission to investigate the selective killings of the minorities in the Valley after the onset of militancy in 1989-90 and reinvestigate the case related to his brother’s killing.
“My brother was killed by a silencer-fitted revolver by Bitta Karate, which he has also admitted to in a video interview. For the past 27 years, we are awaiting justice. I still remember the day as if it happened yesterday. The case should be reinvestigated and a fresh charge sheet should be filed,” said Maharaj Krishan Tikku, who now lives in Jammu.
Dar was detained under the Public Safety Act in June 1990. A TADA court granted him bail in 2006 after he spent 16 years in jail without conviction. During his detention, the prosecution had made a weak case against the accused which did not stand before the court of law.
For the relatives of other victims, the NIA’s action against former militants has generated a hope that they will get the long-delayed justice.
“At 8.30 am on that fateful day in 1990, a local boy visited our home and demanded to see Satish, saying that someone wants to meet him. We told him Satish is sleeping and the boy left,” said Vijay Tikku, Satish’s sister-in-law.
The family says that when they told Satish about the visitor, he left home and within seconds there was a hue and cry a few yards away from their home. “Satish was dead. Everybody was talking about Bitta killing Satish but nobody came to help us. In fact, our Muslim neighbours later advised us to leave, citing threat to our lives,” said Vijay.
“Karate was released on bail as the prosecution showed disinterest in getting his confession on the killings. The families of the victims were traumatised by the loss of their loved ones and the exodus and the fight for survival was the main reason they did not pursue the case properly,” said advocate Nitesh Bhan, who has collected data on the Pandit killings.
Bhan said it would be difficult to reopen the case. He said the first question which the court would ask was why had it taken so long for the victims’ families and the state to challenge the release of the former militant.
“A video confession before a news channel does not carry weight in the court of law. If the cases have been dismissed on technical grounds then retrial could be sought after filing a charge sheet but if they have been dismissed on merit then it will be a difficult task,” says Bhan.
There have been five massacres of Kashmiri Hindus but those involved have not been prosecuted.
Former Chief Secretary Vijay Bakaya said: “It was difficult to pursue individual cases as there was a total breakdown of law and order. It was difficult to find the witnesses and the victims’ families also didn’t come forward in some cases.”