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Farooq Ahmed Dar, alias Bitta Karate, openly admitted on camera to killing around 20 people during the early 1990s insurgency in Kashmir
Trained in arms after crossing the LoC in 1988, Bitta Karate emerged as a JKLF enforcer during the period of targeted killings
Despite repeated detentions and his release on bail in 2006, he was never convicted for the brutal killings of Kashmiri Pandits during the insurgency.
Farooq Ahmed Dar, alias Bitta Karate, remains one of the most controversial and disturbing figures linked to the targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the early 1990s. Despite openly admitting on camera to killing around 20 people, he has never been convicted for those crimes.
Bitta Karate earned his nickname due to his proficiency in martial arts; some accounts suggest he held a brown belt. He was born in 1973 in the Guru Bazar area of Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley.
He was among the first wave of Kashmiri youth to cross the Line of Control (LoC) in 1988 to receive arms training. Entering militancy at a young age, he quickly rose as an enforcer of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). During this period, he became a feared figure among Kashmiri Pandits and acquired the grim title “Butcher of Pandits.”
The targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits were systematically launched in January 1990, amid escalating insurgency and the beginning of the community’s mass migration from the Valley. Local newspaper Aftab published a press release asking Kashmiri Pandits to leave Kashmir, reflecting the atmosphere of fear and chaos. At the centre of this violence was Bitta Karate.
In a 1991 interview with journalist Manoj Raghuvanshi, given while he was in detention, Bitta Karate made chilling confessions. He claimed he had killed 20 people. When asked whether the victims included Muslims, he responded that some were Muslims, but acknowledged that most were Kashmiri Pandits, stating, “Yes, there were more Kashmiri Pandits… I was ordered to kill them.”
He repeatedly insisted that the killings were carried out under orders from senior militant leaders. “I used to get orders from above,” he said, naming Ishfaq Majid Wani as the person who issued those instructions. He admitted he never acted independently: “No, I didn’t kill anyone on my own. Leaders used to give me orders.”
When questioned about whether he would kill anyone on command, including his own family members, his answers were stark. Asked if he would kill his brother if ordered, he replied yes. When asked if he would kill his own mother, he responded, “Yes, I would have killed her.”
Describing his methods, Bitta Karate said he used pistols to assassinate individuals and AK-47 rifles to fire at security forces. He claimed he usually operated alone and said he did not wear a mask. When the interviewer pointed out that people would have recognised him, he replied, “Yes, people used to support me,” explaining why he was never handed over to authorities.
He identified Satish Kumar Tikku, a Kashmiri Pandit, as the first person he killed, saying, “I was ordered to kill him… He was a Pandit boy.”
Bitta Karate was arrested in June 1990 under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act. Between 1990 and 2006, he was repeatedly placed under preventive detention. In 2006, he was released on indefinite bail by a TADA court. After his release, the murder cases against him failed to progress meaningfully, and he remained free for years.
In 2019, he was rearrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a terror-financing case and has remained in jail since. However, he has never been convicted for the killings he confessed to more than three decades ago.
What stands out is the ease and openness with which Bitta Karate spoke about the killings, describing them as orders carried out routinely. The accused himself admitted on record, “I killed 10–12 people… Yes, 20,” and also claimed he never failed in his missions, stating, “No, I never failed.” Despite these confessions, he was never convicted.
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