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Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Raids at JKLF chief's home over 1990 murder of Pandit woman
SRINAGAR: J&K police's Special Investigation Agency (SIA) conducted raids Tuesday at the residence of jailed Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik and seven other Srinagar locations over the murder of a Kashmiri Pandit woman hospital staffer by terrorists 35 years ago. The action in Sarla Bhatt's murder case came a week after lieutenant-governor (LG) Manoj Sinha vowed reinvestigations into such terror killings. Anantnag's Bhatt, 27, was kidnapped from Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKICC) in Srinagar on April 14, 1990, by JKLF-linked militants on claims of being a police informer. Her bullet-ridden body was found four days later. Malik is serving a life term in Delhi's Tihar Jail after a 2022 conviction for terror-related crimes. 'These strategic searches at eight locations throughout Srinagar have resulted in recovery of some incriminating evidence, which will help in unearthing the whole terrorist conspiracy with an ultimate aim to deliver Justice to the victim and her family,' SIA said in a statement Tuesday. The searches also spanned homes of former JKLF lynchpins such as Javid Mir, Peer Noor ul Haq Shah alias Air Marshal Noor Khan, Reyaz Kabir, Bashir Ahmad Gojri, Feroz Ahmad Khan, Kaiser Ahmad Tiploo and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo, all residents of Srinagar. This is the second major terror case reopened in J&K. The first was in 2023 when SIA started a probe into the 1989 killing of Neelkanth Ganjoo, a retired Kashmiri Pandit judge. Ganjoo had sentenced JKLF founder Mohammad Maqbool Butt to death in 1968 for killing a police officer in Kupwara. Butt was hanged in Tihar Jail on Feb 11, 1984. Ganjoo was shot dead by terrorists on Nov 4, 1989 in Srinagar. A 2008 J&K police report revealed that 209 Pandits were killed by terrorists since 1989. Community groups insist the number is higher. Last week, Sinha had pledged to have such terror cases reopened. 'I assure the family members of civilian martyrs that I will not rest until every family that has been a victim of the terrorists' atrocities gets justice,' the LG had said at an Aug 5 event to mark the sixth anniversary of Article 370's abrogation. While most J&K political parties have been silent on the move, BJP has hailed the reinvestigations and raids.
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
What is the Sarla Bhatt murder case, being probed 35 years after the Kashmiri Pandit woman's death?
Sarla Bhatt, a Kashmiri Pandit woman whose killing the State Investigation Agency is probing 35 years later, was a nurse who stayed back in the Valley when others from her community left. On Tuesday morning, the State Investigation Agency raided eight places in Srinagar simultaneously in connection with the case. The raids come two years after the SIA reopened the murder case of a Kashmiri Pandit judge, Neelkanth Ganjoo. Bhatt, a 27-year-old from south Kashmir, was abducted by the militants of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in 1990. Her bullet-riddled body was recovered after five days from old Srinagar city. A resident of Anantnag, she was posted at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar. After the eruption of militancy, she was among the few Kashmiri Pandits who stayed put in the Valley. On April 14, 1990, she was at her hostel in SKIMS when militants abducted her, claiming she was a police informer. After the body was found, allegations had also emerged that she had been tortured and raped. In 2023, the SIA reopened the murder case of Ganjoo, who too was killed by JKLF militants. Ganjoo, who had sentenced to death JKLF founder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, was killed in November 1989 in Srinagar. In 2017, the Supreme Court rejected a petition seeking the reopening and investigation into the killings of several hundred Kashmiri Pandits by militants since the beginning of the insurgency in Kashmir. A Bench comprising the then Chief Justice of India J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud dismissed the plea, arguing that 27 years had passed since the Pandit exodus from the Valley, and evidence 'is unlikely to be available'. In 2023, the apex court again dismissed a curative petition by an organisation, Roots in Kashmir, seeking investigations into the killing of Kashmiri Pandits. Two months after the dismissal of the curative petition by the Supreme Court, however, the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha administration reopened the judge murder case and hinted that other cases would be reopened too. A report compiled by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in 2008 on the basis of a survey of its own cases revealed that from 1989 onwards, militants had killed 209 Kashmiri Pandits – 109 of them in 1990 alone. Kashmiri Pandit groups, however, say that the number is higher. The police survey revealed that 140 cases were registered at police stations across the Valley, chargesheets were filed in 24 cases, while in 115, the perpetrators were yet to be identified. Thirty-one local militants were booked in the 24 cases in which chargesheets had been filed. Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. ... Read More
