Criminal petition filed against Bitta Karate over Kashmiri Pandit Satish Tickoo's killing

The family of late Kashmiri Pandit Satish Kumar Tickoo has filed a criminal petition in the Sessions Court of Srinagar against the jailed Kashmiri separatist Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate for allegedly shooting dead Tickoo in the early 1990s.

Srinagar (J&K): The family of late Kashmiri Pandit Satish Kumar Tickoo has filed a criminal petition in the Sessions Court of Srinagar against the jailed Kashmiri separatist Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate for allegedly shooting dead Tickoo in the early 1990s. The court, after having heard the arguments of the lawyers of both parties, fixed April 16 as the next date of the hearing.

"Today was the first hearing in the case. We apprised the court about the case and the court too reprimanded the J&K government," Utsav Bains, lawyer for late Satish Tickoo told reporters after the hearing. He further said, "I hope that with the commencement of hearing on this case, the family of the late Satish Kumar Tickoo will get justice."

In a televised interview, Karate has claimed to have killed more than a dozen Kashmiri Pandits in 1990. He later claimed that the statement was taken from him by force and that he did not kill anyone. Karate was jailed on militancy charges from 1990 to 2006 and later was out on bail for a few months.

He was re-arrested in 2019 in a terror funding case and has been in custody ever since. Tickoo was shot on February 2, 1990, at his residence in the Habba Kadal area of downtown Srinagar and succumbed at the hospital.