Chargesheet Alleges JKLF Conspiracy in 1990 Killing of Kashmiri Pandit Nurse
The Jammu and Kashmir police's State Investigation Agency (SIA) has filed a 737-page chargesheet in a special NIA court in Srinagar, naming former JKLF chief Yasin Malik as a key accused in the abduction and killing of Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old nurse, in 1990.
According to the chargesheet, Bhat was abducted, tortured, and killed by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) as part of a larger terrorist conspiracy targeting the Kashmiri Pandit community. Bhat's body was found on the Mallabagh-Omer Colony Road in Srinagar on April 19, 1990. She worked as a nurse in the Neonatology Department of the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura.
The investigation, the SIA claimed, has "conclusively established" that her murder was "pursuant to a larger terrorist conspiracy and campaign directed against the Kashmiri Pandit community." Officials described the development as a "historic milestone in the pursuit of justice for victims of terrorism" and one of the most significant breakthroughs in investigating legacy terror crimes in Jammu and Kashmir.
The chargesheet was filed on Monday, and the court is expected to take cognisance of it in the coming days. The case is part of a series of investigations into crimes committed during the early years of militancy in Kashmir, which led to the exodus of many Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.
