The investigation agencies are probing the role of the outlawed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in the killing of Judge Neelkanth Ganjoo, a Kashmiri Pandit, who was assassinated on November 4, 1989, in Srinagar.
According to sources, the State Investigation Agency, which has been tasked to carry out the probe, has also identified cases of other prominent individuals who were assassinated by terror outfits in Jammu and Kashmir in the early nineties when the armed insurgency broke out in the Valley.
Sources that a num bee of prominent cases have been identified and the agency will soon start investigating which is why people have been urged to come forward and share information on these cases.
Judge Neelkanth had sentenced JKLF ideologue and co-founder Maqbool Bhat to death in September 1968. The decision was later upheld by the Supreme Court in 1982 and the JKLF ideologue was sent to the gallows for the murder of police CID inspector Amar Chand in 1966.
In order to unearth the larger criminal conspiracy behind the killing of retired Judge, Neelkanth Ganjoo, three decades ago, the SIA, through a communique, has appealed to all persons familiar with facts or circumstances of the murder case to come forward and share any account of events which has direct or indirect bearing on the investigation of the case.
Agencies have blamed the JKLF outfit, whose chief Yasin Malik is incarcerated on terror funding and other charges, for the killing. However, strangely, no arrest was made in the case.
“A few more cases are being re-opened. Approximately 10 cases which include that of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims," a report said.
“This is being done to unearth the larger criminal conspiracy behind these killings," the source added.
SIA has published a public notice in local newspapers asking people familiar with facts or circumstances of the murder case of the retired Judge to come forward and share any account of events.
Meanwhile, according to a report, the SIA arrested two residents of Srinagar in May who were allegedly involved in Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq’s murder in 1990 at his Nigeen residence.
The agency said that the duo was absconding since May 21, 1990, and had gone underground. The counter-terrorism agency said that the two suspects was hiding in Nepal and Pakistan among other places before surreptitiously returning back to Kashmir a few years ago.