New Delhi: More than 35 years after Sarla Bhat, a nurse at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, was abducted, tortured and killed, and her bullet-riddled body dumped in downtown Srinagar alongside a note branding her a mukhbir (informer), the Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) is set to file a chargesheet in the case against five people, based on fresh evidence.
To reconstruct the three-and-a-half-decade-old crime, investigators tracked down multiple witnesses, now in their 80s, interviewed journalists who covered the violence in the early 1990s, and secured forensic corroboration through a fresh ballistic examination.
According to police sources, a key evidence was the analysis confirming that all three cartridges recovered from the scene had been fired from the same firearm used by JKLF operatives. This was also corroborated with accounts of eyewitnesses who saw and heard burst fire from the weapon used in the killing.
Based on the evidence, the SIA identified five members of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) as being responsible for the crime. Of those, three have died, one is in custody and one absconding.
Their motive, investigators suspect, was to instil fear among local Kashmiris and trigger an exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, which the perpetrators achieved, said a source in the SIU.
Non-bailable warrants, and proclamation proceedings have been initiated against the absconding accused, it is learnt.
Bhat’s killing was a turning point in the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. Soon after the incident, many remaining Pandit families, who hadn’t yet fled, began leaving Kashmir.
Kashmir’s SIU unit had reopened the case last year in August and carried out multiple raids to trace the accused.
“It took almost a year to trace the eyewitnesses, who are now very old and convince them to testify. The investigation began from very limited information that was available in the case because in the 1990s, cases were registered, but no probes were carried out. It was the peak of militancy and situation was very volatile. There were several killings, but perpetrators were never brought to justice,” an officer said.
Adding, “This was a tough investigation. Several suspects dead, limited evidence, but the teams worked hard to take it to a logical conclusion.”
In 2017, the Supreme Court rejected a petition seeking the re-investigation of killings of Kashmiri Pandits, saying evidence is “unlikely to be available”. In 2023, it again dismissed a curative petition by an organisation, Roots in Kashmir, seeking investigations into the killing of Kashmiri Pandits.
According to police records 1989 onwards, militants had killed 209 Kashmiri Pandits, 109 of them in 1990 alone.
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Witnesses examined
According to police sources, the SIA traced and examined several witnesses who knew Sarla and recorded their statements, in which they corroborated that Bhat was last seen alive at SKIMS on 18 April 1990 at about 2:30 pm and was subsequently abducted by JKLF terrorists.
They also said Bhat was seen near Buchpora Crossing with the JKLF operatives and was then taken towards the Illahibagh-Lal Bazar area, where she was brutally assaulted, dragged, tortured and ultimately shot dead with an automatic rifle.
A reconstruction of the scene of crime was also carried out along with recovery of old photos and videos to establish the sequence of events, said a second source.
Adding, “Eyewitnesses identified the operatives.”
The source went on to explain, “1990s was a time when many of these targeted killings were carried out on the instructions of JKLF. There are several interviews including that of Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, where he is openly admitting to the participation in targeted killings. That too has been taken on record to show the involvement of JKLP in not just Sarla’s case but many such targeted killings.”
A campaign
The SIA during its investigation also established that Sarla’s killing was part of JKLF’s campaign of targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits to create terror and trigger an exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.
“Sarla was no informer. They used it as a pretext to kill her and send a message. Whether it was her murder or Ganjoo’s in 1989, these were targeted attacks on Kashmiri Pandits aimed at spreading terror and triggering an exodus, which they ultimately succeeded in doing,” said the first source.
Once the chargesheet is filed and the court takes cognisance of the case, charges will be framed and the trial process will begin—more than 35 years after the discovery of her bullet-riddled body in downtown Srinagar shook Kashmiri society.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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