Yasin Malik denies role in 1990 killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse, seeks death penalty

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik

SRINAGAR: Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik, in a 25-page affidavit filed on Wednesday before the additional sessions judge hearing Tada and Pota cases in Srinagar, has denied any role in the killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat. In the affidavit, Malik also talks about divorcing his Pakistani wife Mushaal Malik to spare her the life of a widow and seeks capital punishment for himself. He says he will not contest the case. Malik, who has been in New Delhi’s Tihar jail since 2019, submitted the affidavit in response to the State Investigation Agency chargesheet regarding Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat, who was killed April 19, 1990, and in which Malik is arrayed as one of the accused. The affidavit was submitted to the court by Malik’s counsel, advocate Adil Pandit. The case is now listed for reply on Sept 19, 2026. “I have no complaint against this court or the prosecuting agencies. I respectfully state that, in my understanding, the present proceedings have arisen out of political circumstances and decisions and I believe that I have been falsely implicated in the present case,” Malik writes. Malik asks that his written submissions be read and treated as forming an integral part of this affidavit in evidence. On June 29, 2026, the SIA had filed a chargesheet in connection with the “tragic murder of Ms Sarla Bhat, a young Kashmiri Pandit woman who lost her life on 19 April 1990”, the affidavit reads. “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 says. Malik says when the killing took place the administration of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir was headed by governor Jagmohan, known for personally scrutinising sensitive security files and maintaining close supervision over matters concerning militancy and public order, and at no point had Jagmohan suggested that he was involved in the case or was responsible for the killing of Kashmiri Pandits or their subsequent migration from the Valley. “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,” Malik claims in the affidavit. “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 commission of the offence alleged by prosecution,” he says. Malik addresses his wife Mushaal Malik and daughter Raziya Sultana, stating: “You (Mushaal) are twenty years younger than me, and I do not want you to spend the rest of your life carrying the burden of my circumstances or living as a widow. I therefore request you to find the courage to begin a new chapter of your life with dignity and hope… That, before I will be hanged, I have taken the decision to separate you from the bond of our nikah.

“Considering my personal circumstances and after deep reflection, I have decided not to contest the trial proceedings further. My decision shall not be treated as an admission of any prosecution fact, guilt or acceptance of the allegations made against me. I request for capital punishment,” the affidavit reads.

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