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New Delhi: On August 27, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik submitted a detailed 25-page written submission before the Additional Sessions Court (TADA/POTA) in Srinagar through his lawyer Abu Adil Pandit. The court has listed the matter for next hearing on September 19.

Malik begins with the most recent charge levied on him. On June 29, the State Investigation Agency (SIA), Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, filed a chargesheet in connection with the horrific murder of Sarla Bhat.

In April 1990, Bhat, a nurse, was abducted from the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and shot dead. Her bullet-ridden body was later dumped in downtown Srinagar with a note branding her a mukhbir (informer), where it was found on April 19, 1990. In March 2024, the case was transferred to the SIA by order of the Jammu and Kashmir police chief. In June this year, Malik was named as an accused in SIA’s 737-page chargesheet. The investigation has found Malik, along with Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Mohammad Yousuf alias Idrees and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo, to be involved in the planning and execution of Bhat’s abduction and brutal killing.

Malik has contended, “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. That prior to the filing of the chargesheet, on 2nd and 3rd June 2026, three officers of the State Investigation Agency visited me in Central Jail No. 7, Tihar, New Delhi, pursuant to an order of the competent Court. 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, ls it true that JKLF suspected a Nurse of SKIMS Soura, namely Sarla Bhat of passing information to security persons regarding your presence in Hafiz Bazaz R/O Narwara and consequent upon it you asked JKLF to kill her?”

He adds, “Why did the investigating authorities of that time never implicate Javed, Hamid or Yasin Malik in this case? On what legal or factual basis has this theory suddenly emerged after several decades?”

In his submission, beyond defending himself, he defends Bhat too. He explicitly calls Sarla Bhat an “innocent civilian” and says she was “as innocent as my own thirteen-year-old daughter.” He denies she was an informer.

According to Malik’s account in the affidavit, on April 8, 1990, a Border Security Force (BSF) operation unfolded at a house belonging to Hafiz Bazaz in Narwara, downtown Srinagar, where Malik and........

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