Thirty-five years after the brutal killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat, the Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency on Tuesday raided eight locations in central Kashmir, including the residence of jailed separatist leader Yasin Malik. The fresh action comes as investigators reopen the 1990 case linked to the banned JKLF, reigniting attention on one of the Valley’s most haunting unsolved crimes.
Officials said the searches targeted the houses of several individuals formerly associated with the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in connection with the case. Among them was former JKLF leader Peer Noorul Haq Shah, also known as “Air Marshal.”
Bhat, a trainee nurse at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, went missing from her hostel in April 1990. She was later found dead in downtown Srinagar, a case that has remained unresolved for over three decades until the SIA recently took over the investigation.
Yasin Malik, JKLF chief, is currently serving a life sentence in Delhi’s Tihar Jail after being convicted in a terror funding case. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which prosecuted Malik, has appealed for a death sentence, arguing that a terrorist should not be spared capital punishment merely for pleading guilty.
Malik had admitted to charges, including those under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court. While rejecting the NIA’s plea for the death penalty, the court observed that Malik’s crimes struck at “the heart of the idea of India” and aimed to forcibly secede Jammu and Kashmir from the Union.
The NIA has warned that failing to award capital punishment in such cases could undermine sentencing policy and allow terrorists to evade the ultimate penalty by avoiding trial.
