Deposing before a special CBI court in Jammu, the former IAF corporal pointed at Malik, who was attending the proceedings via video-conferencing from Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where he is serving life sentence in a terror funding case since 2019.
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Malik was given an opportunity to cross-examine the eyewitness, but he refused and insisted on physical appearance in court.
The court fixed the next hearing for February 15.
Malik’s identification by the eyewitness as the main shooter was a big shot in the arm for the prosecution, CBI counsel Monika Kohli said.
Besides the four IAF men killed, 22 people had also sustained injuries in the terror attack carried out by Malik, along with some other JKLF operatives.
CBI filed a chargesheet against Malik and others before the designated TADA court in Jammu on August 31, 1990.
In March 2020, the special court framed charges against the JKLF chief and six others — Ali Mohammed Mir, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi alias Mustafa, Javaid Ahmed Mir alias Nalka, Showkat Ahmed Bakshi, Javed Ahmed Zargar and Nanaji.
Malik is also an accused in the 1989 abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Rubayia had also recognised him, along with three others, as her kidnappers, in a TADA court in July 2022.
(With Sanjay Khajuria in Jammu and agency inputs)
