Nearly 31 years after the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu & Kashmir, the family of Satish Tickoo, the first victim of dreaded terrorist Farooq Ahmed Dar, also known as Bitta Karate, moved a Srinagar court on Wednesday, March 30, to reopen the trial against him.
The move comes on the heels of the massive success of the movie, The Kashmir Files, which showed the plight of Kashmiri Hindus in the 1990s.
Bitta Karate was one of the biggest enforcers of Pakistan’s diktat. A free man now, Karate heads the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), the outfit that led the targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits.
In a 1991 interview with India Today’s Newstrack, Bitta Karate admitted to killing “more than 20” Kashmiri Pandits or “maybe more than 30-40” in 1990, when the genocide was executed. Bitta Karate had become the dreaded name for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley and was dubbed the “Butcher of Pandits”.
Bitta Karate had admitted that his first victim was Kashmiri Hindu Satish Tickoo. On Wednesday, the Srinagar sessions court asked Satish Tickoo’s family lawyer to file a hard copy of their plea by April 16. The next hearing in the case will be held on April 16.