JKLF chief Yasin Malik implicated in decades-old murder case

ISLAMABAD: Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik has been named in a charge sheet filed in the decades-old murder case of Sarla Bhat, a nurse killed in Srinagar in 1990, according to Indian media reports cited by Dawn on Monday.

Malik, who has been imprisoned in India on terrorism charges for more than four years, was listed by India’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) among five men charge-sheeted in the case. The case, which had gone cold years ago, was reopened after former lieutenant governor of India-held Kashmir Manoj Sinha moved on demands from local pressure groups.

Case reopened after fresh push

The Indian Supreme Court had declined in 2017 to reopen several Kashmiri Pandit murder cases, with the Indian Express saying the court noted that the killings had taken place nearly three decades earlier and that reliable evidence and witnesses would be difficult to secure.

In 2023, Kashmiri Pandit groups approached Sinha, who then directed police to compile a list of killings from the 1990s. The Sarla Bhat case was later transferred to the SIA in March 2024 for a fresh investigation, according to the Hindustan Times.

Investigation and accused named

In a statement, the SIA said the probe relied on oral, documentary, forensic, ballistic, medical and electronic evidence that had been collected and analysed over the years.

A 737-page charge sheet had been submitted. Besides Malik, those named as accused are Khursheed Ahmad Chalkoo, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Ghulam Mohammad Taploo and Mohammad Yousuf Sofi. the Hindustan Times said three of the accused are now dead.

Malik has been held in Tihar jail since 2019 in connection with separate terrorism charges.