Now Reading: J&K police revive probe into 1990 killings of Kashmiri Pandit poet, son
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J&K police revive probe into 1990 killings of Kashmiri Pandit poet, son
J&K police revive probe into 1990 killings of Kashmiri Pandit poet, son
Jammu and Kashmir Police's State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Wednesday raided nine locations in south Kashmir's Anantnag and Rajouri districts, reopening a 35-year-old case. The probe concerns the abduction and murder of…
The Story in Brief
Jammu and Kashmir Police's State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Wednesday raided nine locations in south Kashmir's Anantnag and Rajouri districts, reopening a 35-year-old case. The probe concerns the abduction and murder of Kashmiri Pandit poet Sarvanand Kaul Premi, 66, and his younger son Verinder on April 30-31, 1990. Their bodies were found hanging from a tree in Kokernag. The searches come weeks after the SIA filed a chargesheet in the separate killing of Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old Kashmiri Pandit nurse, who was abducted and shot dead in April 1990.
The Times of India reports that Premi was a Gandhian and teacher who translated the Bhagavad Gita and Tagore's Gitanjali into Kashmiri. He was posthumously awarded a gold medal in 1997 by the state government. The Hindu adds that the raids are linked to FIR No. 45/1990 and were conducted ahead of Independence Day amid reported terror threats against the minority community. Authorities are targeting unresolved cases from the early 1990s, when the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley began.
The Indian Opinion
Every decade brings a new round of searches, a new chargesheet, but convictions in these 1990-era killings remain vanishingly rare. The SIA's renewed activity is welcome, but it will only matter if it leads to actual trials. The easy narrative, that this is just pre-Independence Day theatre, will persist unless the agency names specific accused and produces evidence in court. The real test: will the chargesheet filed in Sarla Bhat's case on June 29 result in an arrest, or will it too gather dust? A single conviction would speak louder than a hundred raids.
Sources (2): timesofindia.indiatimes.com, thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
