Srinagar, Aug 12: Thirty-five years after the brutal abduction and killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse SarlaBhat, the State Investigation Agency (SIA) Kashmir has reopened the case and launched fresh investigations. On Tuesday, SIA conducted raids at eight locations across Srinagar as part of this renewed probe.
Originally registered under FIR No. 56/1990 at Police Station Nigeen, the case concerns the murder of SarlaBhat, who was a nurse at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura. Despite the widespread exodus of Kashmiri Pandits during the insurgency, Sarla chose to stay at her post. On April 14, 1990, terrorists from the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) abducted her, accusing her of being a police informer. Her bullet-riddled body was later found near Umar Colony Mallabagh, Soura. Reports from the time indicated she was tortured and raped before being killed.
A police spokesman said the eight raids across Srinagar have yielded incriminating evidence, which investigators believe will help expose the full terrorist conspiracy and bring justice to the victim and her family. Officials described Tuesday’s actions as a critical step toward holding the perpetrators accountable, even decades after the crime. The SIA has pledged to pursue the case “to its logical conclusion.”
This renewed focus follows the reopening of another high-profile case two years ago, the assassination of Sessions Judge NeelkanthGanjoo, who had sentenced JKLF founder Mohammad MaqboolBhat to death. Judge Ganjoo was killed by terrorists in Srinagar in November 1989.
Legal efforts to revisit targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits have faced challenges. In 2017, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking a probe, citing the passage of 27 years and the unavailability of evidence. A curative petition filed by Roots in Kashmir in 2023 was similarly rejected. However, within two months of this dismissal, the administration under Lt Governor Manoj Sinha revived the Ganjoo case and indicated plans to reopen other unresolved cases.
According to a 2008 Jammu and Kashmir Police survey, terrorists killed 209 Kashmiri Pandits since 1989, including 109 in 1990 alone. Out of 140 cases registered, only 24 have progressed to charge sheets naming 31 local terrorists. In the remaining 115 cases, the perpetrators remain unidentified. Kashmiri Pandit groups claim the actual number of victims is higher than official records show.
