Jammu and Kashmir Police's State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Tuesday raided the homes of former militant commanders, some of whom are long dead, as part of a renewed campaign to reopen investigations into the killings of Kashmiri Pandits.
The police said Tuesday's raids were conducted in connection with the 1990 killing of Sarla Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit nurse. This is the second major case that has been reopened and investigated by the SIA.
The agency had in 2023 reopened the case of the killing of retired Kashmiri Pandit judge Neelkanth Ganjoo by militants in 1989. The judge had sentenced to death Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat.
The homes raided on Tuesday included that of JKLF chairman Yasin Malik, who is lodged in Tihar Jail.
The other homes raided were those of Javid Mir, Peer Noor-ul-Haq Shah alias Air Marshal Noor Khan, Reyaz Kabir Sheikh, Bashir Ahmad Gojri, Feroz Ahmad Khan, Kaiser Ahmad Tiploo and Ghulam Mohammad Taploo — all residents of Srinagar district.
Some of them are related to slain JKLF members, including Abdul Hameed Sheikh, one of the militants involved in starting the insurgency in Kashmir.
Malik, Mir and Sheikh were among the first JKLF members to take up arms in 1989. Malik declared a unilateral ceasefire in 1994 and publicly renounced violence.