NEW DELHI: Banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik was on Monday named as the main accused in the abduction and brutal killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat in 1990, as the J&K State Investigation Agency (SIA) filed a chargesheet in the case nearly 36 years after the crime.Calling it a “historic milestone” in the pursuit of justice for victims of terrorism, the SIA filed a 737-page chargesheet before a designated NIA court in Jammu after reopening the case in 2024.Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old nurse working at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, was abducted on April 14, 1990, allegedly by JKLF-linked militants on suspicion of being a police informer. Her bullet-riddled body was found four days later in downtown Srinagar, several kilometres from where she had gone missing.According to the SIA, the investigation revealed “the involvement of Mohammad Yaseen Malik, then Chief Commander of JKLF, along with Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Mohammad Yousuf Sofi alias Idrees and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo in planning and executing the abduction and brutal killing.”While Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Ghulam Mohammad Taploo and Mohammad Yousuf Sofi are now deceased, Malik is currently serving a life sentence in Delhi’s Tihar Jail following his 2022 conviction in a terror funding case. Khursheed Ahmad Chalkoo, alleged to have carried out the shooting, is believed to have fled to Pakistan, the agency said.‘Time can never become a shield for terrorism’A spokesperson for the SIA said the chargesheet was compiled after an extensive investigation involving oral testimonies, documentary evidence, forensic analysis, ballistic reports, medical records and electronic evidence gathered over decades.“The filing of the chargesheet after nearly 35 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 spokesperson said in a six-page handout, according to PTI.“More importantly, 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,” he added.The agency further stated that while terrorism may delay justice through “fear, intimidation and violence”, it can never permanently defeat the rule of law. The SIA said legal proceedings, including proclamation proceedings, have been initiated against absconding accused Khursheed Ahmad Chalkoo.“The chargesheet establishes offences punishable under Sections 364, 341, 302 read with 34, 201 and 120-B RPC, 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,” it added.The Sarla Bhat case is the second major legacy terror case reopened by the SIA in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2023, the agency reopened the investigation into the 1989 killing of retired Kashmiri Pandit judge Neelkanth Ganjoo, who had sentenced JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat to death in 1968 for the murder of a police officer.According to a 2008 Jammu and Kashmir Police report, 209 Kashmiri Pandits were killed by terrorists after 1989, though community organisations have maintained that the actual number of victims was significantly higher.
