Kashmiri Pandits’ exodus: Raids at 8 locations over 1990 murder of Sarla Bhat; former JKLF leader’s house searched | Srinagar News
NEW DELHI: The State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Tuesday raided several locations in central Kashmir as part of its probe into the 35-year-old murder of a Kashmiri Pandit woman, officials said. The searches were carried out at the residences of people formerly linked to the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in connection with the killing of Sarla Bhat. Bhat went missing from her hostel at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Soura in April 1990. Her body was later found in downtown Srinagar. According to news agency PTI, among those whose homes were searched was former JKLF leader Peer Noorul Haq Shah, also known as “Air Marshal”. The SIA recently took over the investigation.Who was Sarla BhatSarla Bhat, 27, a resident of Anantnag district, was employed as a nurse at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar’s Soura area. She was kidnapped from the institute’s hostel, and her bullet-riddled body was discovered on April 19, 1990, along a road in the Malbagh area of the city. Investigators believe her killing was part of a wider plot to force the Kashmiri Pandit community out of the Valley by branding them as agents of Indian intelligence agencies.
