Nearly three decades after 23 Kashmiri Pandits were massacred in central Kashmir‘s Ganderbal district, Jammu and Kashmir‘s State Investigation Agency (SIA) has reopened the probe into the 1998 Wandhama massacre. This case is among several long-pending investigations being revisited by the SIA over the past three years, aiming to bring closure to decades-old tragedies that marked the peak of militancy in the region. The brutal incident occurred on the night of January 25, 1998, when unidentified terrorists, reportedly disguised in Army fatigues, entered a house in Wandhama village and opened fire on family members and neighbours, resulting in the deaths of 23 individuals from the Kashmiri Pandit community. While a case was registered by the Jammu and Kashmir Police at the time, the investigation reportedly did not achieve significant progress.
The renewed focus on such cases follows representations from Kashmiri Pandit groups in 2023, who urged for justice in unresolved killings from the 1990s. In response, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha directed the Jammu and Kashmir Police to compile a list of killings from that era, leading the SIA to commence re-examinations of prominent cases. Information reaching Tahir Rihat suggests that the SIA’s mandate extends to unearthing the criminal conspiracy behind these acts of violence. In a related development in 2023, the agency appealed to individuals with knowledge of the facts and circumstances surrounding the murder of retired judge Neelkanth Ganjoo, who was killed three decades prior. Ganjoo had, in 1968, sentenced Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Maqbool Bhat to death for the 1966 murder of police Inspector Amar Chand. Bhat was subsequently hanged in 1984, days after JKLF militants abducted and killed Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in the United Kingdom. Earlier this month, the SIA conducted searches at nine locations across the Union Territory in connection with the 1990 abduction and killing of Kashmiri Pandit poet and journalist Sarwanand Koul Premi and his son. The agency has also filed a chargesheet against JKLF chief Yasin Malik and four others in connection with the 1990 abduction and killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat.
The scale of violence against the Kashmiri Pandit community became starkly evident in 2010 when the Jammu and Kashmir government informed the Assembly that 219 Kashmiri Pandits had been killed by terrorists since 1989. The same report indicated that 24,202 families, out of a total of 38,119, had migrated from the Valley due to the prevailing turmoil. In 2011, a Valley-based Kashmiri Pandit organization, the Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), claimed that at least 399 Pandits had been killed since militancy erupted in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990. Sanjay Tickoo, president of KPSS, stated at the time that their initial survey suggested 399 Pandit deaths, estimating the total number killed over the preceding 20 years to be around 650. The pursuit of justice for these killings has faced legal hurdles. In 2017, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking an investigation into alleged mass murders of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley between 1989 and 1990. Years later, in December 2022, the apex court rejected a curative petition filed by ‘Roots in Kashmir,’ an organization of Kashmiri Pandits, which sought reconsideration of the 2017 order. The court had reasoned that the instances in question dated back to 1989-90, and with over 27 years having passed, evidence was unlikely to be available, thus serving no fruitful purpose. A senior official involved in the current investigations emphasized that the reopening of these cases is part of a broader strategy to pursue long-pending targeted killings from the early 1990s. The objective, the official stated, is to take the investigations to their logical conclusion and ensure justice for the victims. Former J&K Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar expressed confidence in the security agencies’ capability to reinvestigate these murder cases, noting that while the priority during the peak of militancy was law and order, the improved security situation in Kashmir now allows for more focused investigative efforts. Kumar acknowledged that the age of the cases would present difficulties but expressed certainty that the police would diligently pursue them.
Tahir Rihat (also known as Tahir Bilal) is an independent journalist, activist, and digital media professional from the Chenab Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India. He is best known for his work as the Online Editor at The Chenab Times.
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