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SIA raids 9 locations in 1990 Kashmiri Pandit double murder case
In connection with the 1990 double murder of a prominent writer and his son, the State Investigation Agency (SIA), Kashmir, conducted raids at multiple locations across J&K on Tuesday.
In connection with the 1990 double murder of a prominent writer and his son, the State Investigation Agency (SIA), Kashmir, conducted raids at multiple locations across J&K on Tuesday.
Prominent Kashmiri Pandit writer and social worker Sarwanand Koul Premi and his 24-year-old son, Virender Koul, residents of Soaf Shali in Kokernag, Anantnag, were killed after they were abducted from their home in 1990.
Over the past five years, the J&K government has reopened several cases, especially those involving Kashmiri Pandits who were killed during the initial days of militancy.
The SIA said its sleuths conducted searches at nine locations across Jammu and Kashmir in connection with FIR No. 45/1990, registered at Police Station Dooru, Anantnag, which is now under investigation by the agency.
“This case revolves around the horrific abduction and brutal killing of Kashmiri Pandit writer and social worker Sarwanand Koul Premi and his young son, Virender Koul, residents of Soaf Shali in Kokernag, Anantnag, in 1990 — a chilling double murder that has remained etched in the region’s history for decades,” an official said.
He said the latest searches mark a significant development in the long-running investigation as the SIA intensifies efforts to uncover the circumstances surrounding the killings and bring the probe to a decisive stage.
Last year, the State Investigation Agency had conducted raids at eight places in Srinagar district as part of the investigation into the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit woman 35 years ago.
Sarla Bhat, who was working as a nurse at SKIMS, was abducted and brutally killed by terrorists in 1990.
In June, the SIA filed a chargesheet before a special TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act) court in Srinagar, naming proscribed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yasin Malik, then the outfit’s “chief commander,” and Khurshid Ahmad Chalkoo as the masterminds behind the crime.
