Kashmiri Pandit Woman’s Murder Case Reopened After 35 Years; SIA Raids Ex-Militants in Kashmir
The State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Tuesday launched a series of raids across central Kashmir, reopening the 35-year-old murder case of Sarla Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit woman whose death has remained a painful chapter from the early days of militancy in the valley. The renewed probe signals a fresh impetus to bring closure to long-unsolved cases from that turbulent period.
Officials confirmed that SIA sleuths searched the residences of several individuals formerly associated with the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Among those targeted was former JKLF leader Peer Noorul Haq Shah, also known as ‘Air Marshal’.
The raids are part of a comprehensive investigation into the brutal killing of Bhat, who was a staff nurse at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Soura.
Sarla Bhat went missing from her hostel in April 1990, a time when the valley was descending into chaos and targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits were on the rise. Her body was later discovered in downtown Srinagar, sending shockwaves through the community and becoming a symbol of the violence that led to the mass exodus of Pandits from Kashmir.
The SIA recently took over the cold case, aiming to unearth new evidence and bring the perpetrators to justice after more than three decades. Further details about the findings from the raids are awaited as the investigation progresses.
