JKLF chief Yasin Malik among five named in charge-sheet in 1990 Sarla Bhat killing case

After 36 years, the State Investigation Agency (SIA), the special cell of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, on Monday, June 29, 2026, named Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik, among five others, in the chargesheet prepared for the murder of Kashmiri Pandit Sarla Bhat, a nurse at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, who was killed in 1990.

According to SIA, the investigation “unequivocally established that Bhat’s killing was not an isolated act of violence but was part of a larger terrorist conspiracy under the command and control of the JKLF”.

SIA said investigation revealed the involvement of then JKLF commander-in-chief Malik; Khurshid Ahmed Chalkoo; Abdulhamid Sheikh; Mohammad Yousuf Sofi, alias Idrees, and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo “planned and executed the kidnapping and brutal murder.”

Torture, physical assault

SIA said Bhat was “subjected to brutal torture and physical assault and was later gruesomely murdered by firing from an automatic rifle at Omer Colony in Malbagh, Srinagar”.

Three of the five defendants, including Sheikh, Sofi and Taploo, died. Malik, who was sentenced to two life imprisonment and five 10-year sentences in 2022, has been sent to Tihar jail and will also be tried in two other major cases, including the 1989 kidnapping of the then Union Home Minister’s daughter and an attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 1990.

SIA said legal proceedings, including posting, have been initiated against escaped terrorist Chalkoo, who “pulled the trigger” and is believed to have infiltrated Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The charge sheet has identified offenses punishable under Sections 364, 341, 302 read with Sections 34, 201 and 120B of the Ranbir Penal Code, Sections 3(2), 3(3), 4 and 6 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), 1987 and Sections 7 and 27 of the Indian Arms Act, 1959.

Important development: police

J&K Police termed the 737-page indictment a “landmark development and a defining moment in J&K’s fight against terrorism”. “The voluminous chargesheet, meticulously compiled after a thorough investigation, brings together a wealth of oral, documentary, forensic, ballistic, medical and electronic evidence accumulated over decades and meticulously analyzed by the Kashmir SIA,” police said.

Police said the filing of the chargesheet after 36 years is a historic milestone in the quest for justice for victims of terrorism and is one of the most significant breakthroughs in the investigation of old terror crimes in Jammu and Kashmir.

Police said, “The charge sends a strong and clear message that time can never be a shield against terrorism. No matter how many years pass, those responsible for terrorist atrocities will continue to be held accountable before the law.”

Bhat, killed in the attack on April 18, 1990, was among the first Kashmiri Pandits killed when militancy broke out in 1989.

“The Sarla Bhat case has become one of the symbols of the dark chapter of terrorism that gripped the Kashmir Valley. But neither the memory of the victim nor the quest for justice has faded with time,” police said.

“This landmark investigation is a testament to SIA Kashmir and the Government of India’s unwavering determination to uncover the truth behind even the oldest unsolved terrorist crimes and hold those responsible accountable,” the statement said.