Srinagar, June 28: More than 35 years after the abduction and killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat, the Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) is preparing to file a chargesheet against five alleged members of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), according to a report published by ThePrint.
The report said the agency reopened the case in August 2025 and spent nearly a year reconstructing the 1990 crime by tracing elderly eyewitnesses, recording fresh statements, examining archival photographs and videos, and conducting forensic analysis.
According to the report, investigators identified five alleged JKLF operatives in connection with the case. Three of the accused have since died, one is in custody and another is absconding. Police have reportedly initiated non-bailable warrant and proclamation proceedings against the absconding accused.
Citing police sources, the report said fresh ballistic examination established that the three cartridges recovered from the crime scene had been fired from the same automatic weapon allegedly used by JKLF militants. The forensic findings were said to be corroborated by eyewitness accounts describing burst fire during the killing.
Investigators also recorded statements from witnesses who reportedly confirmed that Sarla Bhat, a nurse at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), was last seen leaving the hospital on April 18, 1990, before being allegedly abducted. The witnesses told investigators that she was taken towards the Illahibagh-Lal Bazar area, where she was allegedly assaulted, tortured and later shot dead.
According to the report, the SIA concluded that Bhat’s killing formed part of a wider campaign of targeted attacks on Kashmiri Pandits during the early years of militancy. Police sources quoted by ThePrint alleged that branding her as a “mukhbir” was used as a pretext for the killing.
The report further stated that investigators examined historical records, including public statements and interviews relating to the activities of the JKLF during the period, as part of the probe.
Once the chargesheet is filed and the court takes cognisance of the case, trial proceedings are expected to begin, bringing one of the Valley’s oldest unresolved militancy-era murder cases before the courts more than three decades after the incident.
