Who was Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat? J&K SIA conducts massive raids in 1990 murder case

The Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Tuesday carried out raids in at least eight places in central Kashmir as part of its investigation into the abduction and murder of a young Kashmiri Pandit woman in 1990.

According to reports, the searches were carried out at the residences of people formerly linked to the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Former JKLF leader Peer Noorul Haq Shah alias Air Marshal was among those whose houses were searched.

The SIA had taken over the probe into the murder of Sarla Bhat, 27, last year after original probe by the local police failed to nab the perpetrators. The agency has claimed to have recovered “incriminating evidence” which could help in unfolding the murder conspiracy.

However, the latest raids have not resulted in any recovery or arrest so far, the agency said.

Bhat, who was employed as a nurse at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at Soura, went missing from her hostel in April 1990 at the height of Kashmir insurgency. Her bullet-ridden body was found a few days later on a roadside in downtown Srinagar.

It was reported that Bhat was targeted by militants after she defied their dikats to quit government job and leave the Valley.

“Sarla Bhatt’s killing remains one of the most chilling reminders of the atrocities that triggered the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990,” BJP leader Amit Malviya wrote on X while sharing a media report on the SIA raids.

“Her murder was not just a heinous crime but part of the targeted campaign of ethnic cleansing against Kashmiri Pandits, aimed at driving the Hindu minority out of the Valley,” he said.

Though the detailed information on the raids are still awaited, a few channel reports claimed the searches were carried out after the investigators got fresh pieces of evidence in the case.