Bitta Karate, a name that still haunts India’s Kashmiri Pandits and now, 31 years after Bitta Karate admit to killing “more than 20” Kashmiri Pandits or “maybe more than 30-40” in 1990, Farooq Ahmed Dar will finally face a trial for the murder of Satish Tickoo, a local businessman and Karate’s close friend.
Satish Tickoo’s family has move the Srinagar Sessions Court through advocate Utsav Bains and support by activist Vikas Raina and the court hearing will commence 30th March 2022 at 10.30am.
Bitta Karate, who has heading the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) for years, came back into the limelight after the movie ‘Kashmir Files’ highlight his role in the systematic killings of Kashmiri Pandits, a “feat” he admit to on camera.
Ask to choose between “raliv, galiv ya chaliv” (convert, die or leave), scores of Kashmiri Pandits were kill and tens of thousands fled the Kashmir Valley, leaving behind the life they had always known.
Who is Bitta Karate?
Target killing of Kashmiri Pandits began in January 1990, soon after the kidnapping of then Union Home Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya which end with the release of dreaded terrorists. Bitta Karate led the genocide till he was arrest in June 1990.
Under detention in 1991, he gave an interview in which he said he became a terrorist “because I was harass by the local administration”.
Bitta Karate also admit to killing “more than 20” Kashmiri Pandits or “maybe more than 30-40” in 1990.
Bitta Karate did not kill “innocent people”, Bitta Karate said he merely follow “orders from above” given by Ashfaq Majeed Wani, the JKLF top commander.
Ashfaq Majeed Wani was the man who took Bitta Karate and others to Pakistan for terror training.
Ashfaq Majeed Wani was later kill in an encounter.
Bitta Karate admit his first victim was Satish Kumar Tickoo and Said :
“Got orders from above to kill him. He was a Hindu boy”.
Karate allegedly killed 42 people before he was arrested.
Bitta Karate Said :
“I use pistol to kill from a distance of 20 or 30 yards. Sometimes, I also used AK-47 rifles to fire at the security personnel.”
16 years after arrest, Bitta Karate was release on bail in 2006, close on the heels of the Supreme Court verdict quashing his detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Bitta Karate receive a rousing welcome in the Kashmir Valley on his release, with flower petals being shower on him during a procession.
Bitta Karate was arrest again by the NIA in 2019 on charges of terror funding under the anti-terror laws after the Pulwama attack.
