Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old Kashmiri Pandit from Anantnag, was abducted 35 years ago on April 18 in 1990 and was found dead the next morning. Her bullet-riddled body was found on the roadside at Umar Colony Mallabagh, Soura.
The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of Jammu & Kashmir, three decades later, has reopened the case. On Tuesday, it conducted raids at eight locations in Srinagar, including the residence of former Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Peer Noorul Haq Shah, also known as “Air Marshal”, TOI reported.
The SIA said that it has recovered “incriminating evidence” linked to the crime, and called the case a classic example of “justice delayed, but not denied”.
The officials, without revealing the nature of the evidence, said that it would play a “pivotal role” in identifying those who planned and executed the attacks in 1990.
‘Most chilling reminder of 1990 exodus’
BJP leader Amit Malviya claimed that Bhat was “gang-raped” before her body was “cut into pieces and dumped to instil terror”.
“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. Sarla Bhatt’s killing remains one of the most chilling reminders of the atrocities that triggered the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990,” he further added.
Sarla Bhatt, a young Kashmiri Pandit nurse at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar, was brutally murdered in April 1990 during the peak of militancy in Kashmir. Armed militants abducted her from her workplace, took her to an unknown location, and subjected… https://t.co/8inBZfdQgx
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 12, 2025
Who was Sarla Bhat?
Sarla Bhat was a nurse from Anantnag’s Qazibagh who worked in the neonatology ward at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Soura. On April 18, 1990, she was abducted from the institute’s Habba Khatoon Hostel by JKLF-affiliated terrorists and was killed later.
Her dead body, with bullets lodged inside it, was found the next day, April 19 in 1990, in Srinagar. Alongside it was a note that falsely labelled her a police informant.
She had been shot dead by three militants of the JKLF, and a police case was registered at Nigeen police station.
Even when terrorists asked people to quit their jobs and leave the Valley, she refused to comply and openly challenged them, resulting in her gut-wrenching murder.
“She openly challenged JKLF’s threats, refusing to abandon her duty or her home. That defiance marked her out in the eyes of the terrorists,” CNN-News18 quoted a senior investigator as saying.
Even after her death, her family was threatened, with locals warning them not to attend her cremation.
Since the perpetrators couldn’t be brought to justice by the local police, the case was handed over to the SIA last year. The move is part of J&K LG Manoj Sinha’s administration’s broader effort to identify and prosecute those responsible for historic acts of terror against Kashmiri Pandits.
“This is about sending a message — no matter how much time has passed, the state will pursue justice for terror victims,” CNN-News18 quoted one official as saying.