Yasin Malik named in chargesheet for 1990 murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat

The Jammu and Kashmir Police's State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Monday filed a chargesheet naming Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik and four others in connection with the 1990 killing of Sarla Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit nurse. The chargesheet comes 36 years after the crime.

According to the SIA, 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 agency stated that Malik, who was then the JKLF chief commander, along with Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Mohammad Yousuf Sofi alias Idrees, and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo, were involved in planning and executing the abduction and killing.

The SIA said that Bhat 'was subjected to brutal torture and physical assault, and thereafter horrendously killed through automatic rifle fire at Omer Colony, Malbagh, Srinagar.' Three of the five accused — Sheikh, Sofi, and Taploo — are deceased. Malik is currently serving two life sentences and five 10-year prison terms imposed in 2022. He is lodged in Tihar jail and also faces trial in cases involving the kidnapping of the then Union Home Minister's daughter in 1989 and an attack on the Indian Air Force in 1990.

Legal proceedings, including proclamation proceedings, have been initiated against absconding terrorist Chalkoo, whom the SIA describes as 'the one who pulled the trigger' and is believed to have exfiltrated to Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The chargesheet establishes offences under Sections 364, 341, 302 read with 34, 201 and 120B of the Ranbir Penal Code; Sections 3(2), 3(3), 4 and 6 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (TADA); and Sections 7 and 27 of the Indian Arms Act, 1959.

The J&K Police termed the 737-page chargesheet as 'a landmark development and a defining moment in J&K's fight against terrorism.' They noted that the chargesheet was compiled after decades of investigation and includes oral, documentary, forensic, ballistic, medical, and electronic evidence. The police said that the filing of the chargesheet after 36 years marks a historic milestone in pursuing justice for victims of terrorism and is one of the most significant breakthroughs in investigating legacy terror crimes in Jammu and Kashmir.

'The chargesheet sends a powerful and unequivocal message that time can never become a shield for terrorism. No matter how many years have elapsed, those responsible for terrorist atrocities will continue to remain answerable before the law,' the police stated.

Bhat was killed on April 18, 1990, and was among the first Kashmiri Pandits to be killed after the onset of militancy in 1989. According to the police, '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.' They added that the investigation demonstrates the commitment of the SIA and the government to uncovering the truth behind unresolved terrorist crimes.