Sarla Bhat: Kashmiri Pandit Nurse Murder Case Reopens After 35 Years; SIA Raids On

State Investigation Agency raids are going on in 8 locations in Srinagar in the case related to the abduction and killing of Sarla Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit woman, in April 1990.

The State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Tuesday conducted raids at multiple locations across central Kashmir, reopening the probe into the cold-blooded killing of a young Kashmiri Pandit woman — a case that has haunted the Valley for 35 years. Officials said that the coordinated raids targeted the residences of individuals once associated with the proscribed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), in connection with the brutal murder of 27-year-old nurse Sarla Bhat. Among those searched was former JKLF leader Peer Noorul Haq Shah, known as “Air Marshal”.

The SIA, which has recently assumed control of the investigation, believes her murder was part of a calculated campaign to terrorize and drive out the Kashmiri Pandit community.

Who Was Sarla Bhat? 

Hailing from Anantnag district, Bhat was serving as a nurse at SKIMS. She was kidnapped from her hostel at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Soura. Days later, on April 19, 1990, her body was discovered in Srinagar’s Malbagh area dumped along a city road, riddled with bullets. 

Investigators allege her killing was not an isolated act, but a grim cog in a broader machinery of intimidation against her community.