Key facts
- 737-page chargesheet filed by Kashmir SIA
- Yasin Malik named as mastermind; 4 JKLF operatives also named
- Sarla Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit nurse, was raped and killed in 1990
- Case unsolved for 36 years before chargesheet filing
- Malik already serving life sentence in a terror-funding case
Kashmir's Special Investigation Agency has filed a 737-page chargesheet in the 1990 rape and murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat, naming JKLF chief Yasin Malik as the key accused and mastermind — bringing a case that haunted the community for 36 years to a formal courtroom reckoning.
Bhat was a nurse who was abducted, raped, and killed in 1990 at the height of the armed insurgency in Kashmir, during which hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits were targeted, killed, or forced to flee the Valley. She had reportedly been branded an 'informant' by militants — a label used to justify targeted killings during the period. Her murder became one of the most cited cases in accounts of the terror and ethnic cleansing faced by the Kashmiri Pandit community.
Along with Malik, four other JKLF operatives have been named in the chargesheet. Yasin Malik is already imprisoned, having been sentenced to life in a separate terror-funding case by a Delhi court in 2022. The SIA, which was set up specifically to reinvestigate cold cases from the insurgency era, has been building the case using forensic evidence, witness testimonies, and documentary records accumulated over decades.
The filing marks a significant moment for Kashmiri Pandit survivors and families who have long demanded justice for the violence of 1990. Civil society groups and political observers noted that bringing a chargesheet of this scope — 737 pages, naming a high-profile accused — signals the government's intent to pursue accountability for insurgency-era crimes that had gone largely unprosecuted.