13th Feb 1990, When Door darshan Director Lassa Kaul was killed by JKLF

 

 

 

A resident of Bemina in Srinagar, Lassa Kaul was the director of Door darshan Centre. He was a calm and composed man. His behaviour was such that he would have had hardly made any enemies ever. His cultured demeanour had won him maximum friends and well-wishers among the Muslims as well. But with rising voices of Muslim bigotry he was projected as the enemy of Islam, responsible for launching a cultural aggression on the Muslims through his programmes on the Television centre in Srinagar which he headed as a Director.

 

 

One late evening when Kaul left the premises of the Television centre to phone his old and ailing parents who lived in the outskirts of the city, the killers were awaiting his arrival. Some of their accomplices in the centre had informed them of Kaul’s departure from workstation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At around 7:15 pm on 13th February 1990, 45-year old Kaul was gunned down by the terrorists as soon as he stepped out. The Director with Door darshan Kashmir was dead. Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front attackers, who were critical of news station’s pro-India programmes had threatened Kaul a several times. When they found him unmoved by the threats they killed him and didn't even allow to see or talk to his parents for one last time. After his killing, Kaul’s family could only be located when the policemen heard mourning from his house. Rumours had it that some of his colleagues were involved in the murder. He probably never realised that his own men could backstab him or it would turn fatal to him. It is believed that the information of his whereabouts was passed on to the militants by his muslim colleagues only. His brutal assassination shook not only his entire community but also the administration.