Falsely implicated in Sarla Bhat's murder but give me capital punishment: Yasin Malik to Kashmir court

Jailed Kashmiri separatist and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik has filed an affidavit before a Jammu and Kashmir court denying any role in the 1990 murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat. 

Malik has said that he has decided not to contest the trial proceedings. Instead, he has requested capital punishment for himself while maintaining that he is innocent and has been “falsely implicated” in the case more than three decades after the murder. 

“The prosecution's present narrative resembles a fictional story rather than a genuine criminal investigation, carefully woven together after several decades solely with the object of falsely implicating me in the present case. It finds no support from the contemporaneous record or the conduct of the investigating agencies during the relevant period,” Yasin said in his affidavit.

He added that he got to know of Bhat’s murder months after the incident.

“I respectfully state that I first came to know of the murder of Ms. Sarla Bhat on 21 February 1991, while I was in judicial custody. Prior to that date, I had neither heard of her nor was I aware of the incident relating to her death,” the affidavit stated.

Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old Kashmiri Pandit nurse at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar, was abducted on April 18, 1990, while returning from her hospital duty. 

She was allegedly tortured and assaulted before being shot dead with an automatic rifle. Her body was recovered the following day. A note found with her body claimed JKLF responsibility for the killing and accused her of being an informer. Investigators have alleged that the killing was part of a wider JKLF campaign targeting Kashmiri Pandits.

The case remained unresolved for decades before it was transferred to the Jammu & Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) in March 2024 for reinvestigation. On June 29, 2026, the SIA filed a 737-page chargesheet naming then-JKLF chief commander Yasin Malik and four other JKLF operatives as accused. The agency has alleged that Malik was among the masterminds behind the abduction and killing. 

Malik has responded to the chargesheet, stating that the prosecution's theory that he ordered Sarla Bhat's killing out of revenge is fundamentally at odds with his character and conduct. 

He cited a previously undisclosed 1996–97 episode when a journalist's visit to him sparked a damaging news report. There were fears of JKLF retaliation against her but he neither authorised nor caused her any harm to that journalist despite feeling wronged. 

This is a proof that he never resorts to violence and hence, it was wholly implausible that he would order Bhat's killing over mere suspicion, Malik contended.

“The prosecution's theory becomes even more untenable when viewed alongside the undisputed historical record that, during the relevant period in April 1990, I was critically injured, unconscious and undergoing medical treatment. The allegation that I ordered the killing of Ms. Sarla Bhat out of revenge is, therefore, wholly false, unsupported by evidence and contrary to both my conduct and the objective facts,” his submitted.