SIA raids 8 locations in Srinagar

Srinagar, Aug 12: Reopening the case of the murder of a 27-year-old Kashmiri Pandit nurse more than three decades ago, the Jammu and Kashmir Police anti-terror wing Special Investigation Agency (SIA) on Tuesday conducted raids at multiple locations in Srinagar to gather evidence.

Officials said SIA searched eight locations across Srinagar district in connection with the killing of Sarla Bhatt, who was abducted from the Habba Khatoon Hostel of the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Soura on April 18, 1990. Bhatt’s body was found dead the next morning with bullet wounds at Umar Colony, Mallabagh.

According to sources in J&K Police, Bhatt was abducted and killed by terrorists affiliated with the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). A note labelling her as a police informant was found on her body. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered at the Nigeen Police Station, but the investigation at the time “could not bring out the actual perpetrators”.

Police sources said Bhatt had defied terror diktats to Pandits to quit government jobs and leave the Valley, and had openly challenged the JKLF’s authority, which led to her killing. Her family, they added, faced threats even after her death, with locals warning them against attending her cremation.

The case was transferred to SIA last year. The searches, police sources said, have led to the recovery of “incriminating evidence” that will help “unearth the whole terrorist conspiracy” with the aim of delivering justice to Bhatt and her family. The sources said the raids were part of efforts by the SIA to fulfil the J-K administration’s resolve to identify and prosecute those behind “heinous terror acts” of the 1990s.