The State Investigation Agency (SIA) in Kashmir on Monday (June 29) filed a charge sheet in the murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat after reopening the case in August last year.
When the atmosphere of fear and threats gripped Kashmir in 1990 after the inception of militancy, Bhat was among the last Kashmiri Pandit women still at her post.
According to investigation sources, the charge sheet states that Malik concluded that a Kashmiri Pandit nurse had likely tipped off the police.
The case was transferred to SIA J&K in March 2024 under orders from the J&K DGP.
Kashmiri Pandit community organisations estimate that between 1,500 and 2,000 members of the community have been killed since 1989.
The State Investigation Agency (SIA) in Kashmir on Monday (June 29) filed a charge sheet in the murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat after reopening the case in August last year. The 737-page charge sheet names the banned Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front’s (JKLF) jailed chief Yasin Malik as the mastermind behind the 1990 abduction, torture, and murder of the 27-year-old woman.
SIA has also charged four other operatives of JKLF. Of the other four accused, three — Abdul Hameed Sheikh, Ghulam Mohammad Taploo and Mohammad Yousuf Sofi — have already been killed, whereas the fourth one - Khursheed Ahmad Chalkoo is absconding. According to reports, Chalkoo is believed to have fled to Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK).
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The development marks a significant breakthrough in the probe of terror crimes in the region.
We take a closer look.
Who was Sarla Bhat?
Bhat was a 27-year-old nurse at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar, one of the Valley’s premier medical institutions. She was from the Qazibagh neighbourhood of south Kashmir’s Anantnag.
When the atmosphere of fear and threats gripped Kashmir in 1990 after the inception of militancy, Bhat was among the last Kashmiri Pandit women still at her post. She stayed while several other nurses at SKIMS chose to leave with their families.
NDTV reported, citing sources familiar with the investigation, that Bhat was considered an upright, modern young woman who refused to leave her profession despite multiple threats.
Why was Sarla Bhat murdered?
SKIMS was located in Soura, also known in Kashmiri as Sovur, a neighbourhood in Srinagar. It was then considered a stronghold for JKLF and its supporters.
JKLF operatives injured in encounters with security forces were routinely brought to the hospital for medical treatment. Bhat often came in contact with them.
According to investigation sources, the operatives became increasingly suspicious that a Kashmiri Pandit nurse at SKIMS could relay information about the wounded to the police or intelligence agencies. Bhat was threatened several times; however, she did not leave.
On April 8, 1990, J&K Police, acting on intelligence, launched a raid at Narwara targeting and apprehending top JKLF operatives. Malik, who was present at the time, saw the police but managed to escape with injuries.
According to investigation sources, the charge sheet states that Malik concluded that a Kashmiri Pandit nurse had likely tipped off the police. However, that conclusion was made with no evidentiary basis.
Instead, the SIA charge sheet categorically states that the allegation branding Bhat as an informer was “entirely false” and had been fabricated to provide a pretext for what it describes as a “premeditated assassination.”
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On the morning of April 18, 1990, Bhat was abducted from near her hospital at gunpoint. There were several bullet marks on her body when it was recovered the next day from Mallabagh, a locality close to the medical institute.
A handwritten note was recovered from her body, accusing her of “being a police informer.” Several Kashmiri Pandit organisations alleged that Bhat was “tortured and raped” before being killed; however, the police report only mentioned murder, the Indian Express reported.
Following her brutal killing, the J&K Police registered a case (under FIR No 56/1990) against unidentified militants at the Nageen Police Station of Srinagar. Progress in the probe remained limited, and several FIRs lodged by the police in the early 1990s were ultimately closed as untraced.
When did SIA reopen the probe into Bhat’s murder?
The case was transferred to SIA J&K in March 2024 under orders from the J&K DGP.
Last year in August, the SIA reopened the probe into Bhat’s murder. The agency raided several locations in Srinagar, including the residence of Malik and former commander Javid Ahmad Mir, besides six other suspected JKLF operatives.
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What does the charge sheet allege?
The charge sheet mentions Malik alongside Chalkoo, identified as the man who pulled the trigger. Aforementioned, the three others: Sheikh, Sofi, and Taploo have been killed.
Malik is currently in judicial custody in relation to a separate terror financing case. He is serving a life sentence. Chalkoo is believed to have fled to PoK. Authorities have initiated proclamation proceedings against him, NDTV reported.
A senior J&K Police Officer told the publication: “The investigation established that Ms Sarla Bhat was last seen alive at SKIMS on 18 April 1990 at about 1430 hours and was subsequently abducted by JKLF terrorists. Eyewitnesses and protected witnesses consistently stated that she was seen in the company of the accused near Buchpora Crossing, thereafter taken towards the Illahibagh-Lal Bazar area, where she was brutally assaulted, dragged, tortured and ultimately shot dead with automatic rifle fire during the evening of 18 April 1990.”
The charges include abduction, wrongful restraint, murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence under the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), along with relevant provisions of the TADA and the Arms Act.
“The SIA investigation conclusively establishes that Ms Sarla Bhat was abducted, tortured and killed on 18 April 1990 by JKLF terrorists pursuant to a criminal conspiracy executed under the command structure of the organisation. The ocular evidence, medical and ballistic findings, recovery of the Terror Claim Note, electronic evidence, witness testimonies and surrounding circumstances form a coherent and compelling chain of evidence proving that the killing was not an isolated act but part of JKLF’s systematic campaign of targeted violence against the Kashmiri Pandit community intended to spread terror and facilitate their forced exodus from the Kashmir Valley” a senior police told the media outlet.
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There is no definitive count of how many Kashmiri Pandits were killed by militants during the initial years of the insurgency.
A report prepared by J&K Police in 2008, based on a survey of its own cases, revealed that between 1989 and 1990, militants murdered 209 Kashmiri Pandits, of which 109 were killed in 1990 alone. But Kashmiri Pandits say the actual number is much higher than the police figures, the report noted.
Why did it take 35 years to file a charge sheet?
According to the SIA, for years, witnesses were reluctant to come forward due to constant fear and threats by militant groups
Following the transfer of the case to the SIA in March 2024, investigators reopened the entire case, re-examined old records and gathered fresh statements, forensic, ballistic, medical and electronic evidence.
The agency asserted that it reconstructed the entire sequence of events from protected witness testimonies, independent eyewitness accounts, documentary records and scientific evidence accumulated over decades.
What is the larger picture?
Bhat’s brutal killing was not an isolated incident.
Kashmiri Pandit community organisations estimate that between 1,500 and 2,000 members of the community have been killed since 1989. However, no comprehensive official government record documenting all the killings exists.
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The investigation into Bhat’s murder has uncovered fresh leads and new witnesses in several other long-unsolved cases, including the conspiracies behind the killings of Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo, advocate Tikka Lal Taploo and poet Sarwanand Kaul Premi, sources in the J&K Police told NDTV.
Further probe and chargesheets in those cases may follow, beginning with the case of the killing of Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo, the report noted.
With inputs from agencies
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