Family of slain Kashmiri Pandit moves court seeking to reopen trial against Bitta Karate

The family of slain Kashmiri Pandit Satish Tickoo today moved a Srinagar court seeking to reopen the trial against dreaded terrorist Farooq Ahmed Dar also known as Bitta Karate, 31 years after the killing of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley.

The Srinagar sessions court today asked the petitioner’s lawyer to file a hard copy of their plea by April 16 when the next hearing in the case takes place.

Bitta Karate is believed to be one of the key men behind the execution of Kashmiri Pandits. He currently heads the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), the organisation behind the targeted killings.

Karate had admitted to killing more than 20 Kashmiri Pandits in an interview with a news channel years ago. Karate was dubbed the ‘Butcher of Pandits’ after the 1990 killing. Karate, in the video, had also admitted that his first victim was Satish Tickoo.

A Kashmiri Pandit organisation had also approached the Supreme Court of India with a curative petition seeking an investigation either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the planned killings.

The move also comes after the release of The Kashmir Files, a film highlighting the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits and the exodus of Hindus from the valley in the 1990s. The film has sparked outrage and controversy since its release on March 11.