A day after the State Investigation Agency (SIA) filed a chargesheet against Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik and four others in connection with the 1990 abduction and killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat, her cousin said justice had come too late and demanded the death penalty for Malik.
Sarla Bhat, a nurse at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), was abducted from her hostel by JKLF terrorists on April 18, 1990. Her bullet-riddled body was recovered five days later from Srinagar’s old city. The killing took place during a period when the Kashmiri Pandit community was being terrorised into fleeing the Valley.
In its 737-page chargesheet filed before a special court in Srinagar, the SIA named Malik as a key accused in the abduction and murder.
PK Bhat, Sarla’s maternal cousin, who was in Kashmir at the time of the incident, recalled that the family was unable to collect her ashes from the cremation ground because of intimidation by a mob.
“When we went to the cremation ground to collect Sarla’s ashes, around 200 people had gathered there. They desecrated her ashes with their shoes. In the evening, we hurriedly collected a fistful of ashes, hid them in our ‘pheran’ and ran back home in Anantnag,” Bhat alleged, adding that the crowd also hurled abuses at the grieving family.
According to him, the family’s ordeal did not end with Sarla’s murder. While they were still mourning her death, an explosion damaged their house, causing its main wall to collapse and forcing the family to flee to Jammu.
Bhat said the filing of the chargesheet might bring justice to Sarla’s memory, but not to her parents.
“She was returning from duty when she was abducted and later raped and murdered. The case did not move forward for 36 years,” he said.
Questioning the political outreach to Malik in the past, Bhat said, “It is shocking that the same Yasin Malik was invited for dinner by a former Prime Minister. Was the government unaware of the crimes he allegedly committed in Kashmir, including the killing of IAF personnel?”
Demanding the strictest punishment, Bhat said, “Yasin Malik deserves only one punishment — the death penalty.”
