Terrorist Yasin Malik Denies Involvement In 1990 Sarla Bhat Rape-Murder Case

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) terrorist Yasin Malik has denied his involvement in the killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat 36 years ago.

Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old Kashmiri Pandit nurse at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar was abducted by militants in April 1990. Her bullet-riddled body was recovered days later from the Mallabagh area.

Now in June 2026, the Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) has filed a 737-page chargesheet, more than three decades after Bhat was abducted and killed.

The case gained fresh momentum after it was transferred to the SIA in 2024. Investigators revisited old records, located witnesses and collected fresh oral, forensic, ballistic, medical and documentary evidence. According to the SIA's investigation, former Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik was allegedly involved in directing the killing.

The chargesheet names five JKLF members, including Malik, Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Mohammad Yousuf Sofi alias Idrees and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo. Three of the accused are dead, while Chalkoo is reportedly absconding.

Malik, who is currently serving a life sentence in a separate terror-funding case has filed an affidavit before court of additional sessions judge (TADA/POTA), Srinagar, terming the allegations baseless.

In the affidavit Malik has stated, “To my utter shock and disbelief, I was arrayed as one of the accused in the said chargesheet after more than three decades of the occurrence".

Malik has stated that prior to filing of the chargesheet, on June 2 and 3, 2026, three officers of the SIA visited him.  “During my examination, they confronted me with only two allegations. Firstly, they referred to an alleged handwritten note purportedly issued by the JKLF, allegedly recovered from the scene of occurrence, claiming responsibility for the murder and mentioning the names of Javaid Mir, Sheikh Abdul Hamid and Mohammad Yasin Malik. Secondly, I was asked, is it true that JKLF suspected a nurse of SKIMS Soura, namely Sarla Bhat, of passing information to security personnel regarding your presence in the house of Hafiz Bazaz and if you ordered JKLF to kill her,” the affidavit said.

Malik has further claimed that on April 8, 1990, he had sustained life-threatening injuries and remained in a coma. “According to the prosecution, I allegedly directed the murder of Sarla Bhat on April 19, 1990. However, the historical record demonstrates that I had sustained life-threatening injuries on April 8, 1990, remained in a coma, and was widely reported to have died. Indeed, I was declared dead on two occasions - first on April 8, 1990, and again on April 27, 1990, the day of Eid according to reports circulated at the time. It is therefore incomprehensible how a person who was unconscious, fighting for his own survival and widely believed to be dead could have participated in, directed or orchestrated the offence as alleged,” he has said.

On Sarla Bhat, Malik's affidavit stated: “One of the allegations put to me during my examination was whether Sarla Bhat was working covertly for the security forces and whether she was responsible for the raid conducted at Narwara, Downtown Srinagar, on April 8, 1990. I categorically stated that the allegation is entirely false. Sarla Bhat was neither working for the security forces in any covert capacity nor was she in any manner responsible for the raid at Narwara on April 8, 1990. She was an innocent civilian. In my view, she was as innocent as my own thirteen-year-old daughter, Raziya Sultana.”

36 years after the rape and murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat, the SIA in June 2026 had filed a chargesheet before a special TADA court in Srinagar, naming proscribed JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik, then the outfit’s ‘chief commander’, and Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo as the masterminds behind the crime.

The brutality of Bhat's killing forms part of the wider history of targeted violence against Kashmiri Pandits during the onset of militancy and their subsequent displacement from the Valley.