After 36 years, the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s special cell, the State Investigation Agency (SIA), has named Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik among five others in the charge sheet filed in the killing of Kashmiri Pandit Sarla Bhat, a nurse at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences killed in 1990. The SIA has stated that the investigation conclusively established that the killing of Bhat was not an isolated act of violence but part of a larger terrorist conspiracy orchestrated under the command and control of the JKLF. The investigation revealed the involvement of Malik, then JKLF chief commander; Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo; Abdul Hamid Sheikh; Mohammad Yousuf Sofi alias Idrees and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo in planning and executing the abduction and brutal killing.
Bhat was subjected to brutal torture and physical assault, and thereafter horrendously killed through automatic rifle fire at Omer Colony, Malbagh, Srinagar. Three among the five accused are dead, including Sheikh, Sofi and Taploo. Malik, who was sentenced to two counts of life imprisonment and five 10-year prison sentences in 2022, is lodged in Tihar jail and also faces trial in two other major cases, including kidnapping of the then Union Home Minister’s daughter in 1989 and an attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 1990.
The SIA has initiated legal proceedings, including proclamation proceedings, against absconding terrorist Chalkoo, who pulled the trigger and is believed to have exfiltrated to Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir. The charge sheet has established offences punishable under various sections of the Ranbir Penal Code, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (TADA), and the Indian Arms Act, 1959. The J&K Police has termed the 737-page charge sheet as a landmark development and a defining moment in J&K’s fight against terrorism.
The police stated that the voluminous charge sheet, painstakingly compiled after an exhaustive investigation, brings together a formidable body of oral, documentary, forensic, ballistic, medical and electronic evidence accumulated over decades and meticulously analysed by the SIA, Kashmir. The filing of the charge sheet after 36 years marks a historic milestone in the pursuit of justice for victims of terrorism and stands as one of the most significant breakthroughs in the investigation of legacy terror crimes in Jammu and Kashmir. The charge sheet sends a powerful and unequivocal message that time can never become a shield for terrorism.
Bhat, who was killed in the attack on April 18, 1990, was among the first of Kashmiri Pandits killed when militancy broke out in 1989. The Sarla Bhat case became one such symbol of the dark chapter of terrorism that engulfed the Kashmir Valley. Yet, neither the memory of the victim nor the quest for justice faded with time.
This landmark investigation stands as a testament to the unwavering commitment of SIA Kashmir and the Government of India to uncover the truth behind even the oldest unresolved terrorist crimes and ensure that those responsible are held accountable.
