Our Bureau
Srinagar
The Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) has reopened its investigation into the 1998 Wandhama massacre in which 23 Kashmiri Pandits were killed, nearly three decades after the attack. The renewed probe is part of a wider effort to revisit long-pending cases linked to targeted killings during the peak of militancy in the Valley.
Investigators are pursuing fresh leads and examining old evidence to identify those allegedly involved in the killings, including terrorists and their associates. The SIA has also recently conducted raids at several locations in the Kashmir Valley in connection with the Wandhama case and the killing of Kashmiri Pandit leader Tika Lal Taploo.
The Wandhama massacre took place on January 25, 1998, in Ganderbal district, on the eve of Republic Day and during Shab-e-Qadr, one of the holiest nights of Ramzan. According to reports, 23 members of Kashmiri Pandit families were killed, including nine women and four children.
The renewed investigation comes amid similar action in several other cases involving Kashmiri Pandit victims. The SIA has stepped up probes into the killings of Taploo and Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo, while also revisiting the cases of nurse Sarla Bhat and writer Sarwanand Koul Premi and his son Virender Koul.
In June, the agency filed a 737-page chargesheet in the 1990 murder of Sarla Bhat, naming jailed JKLF chief Yasin Malik among the accused. Earlier this month, searches were conducted at nine locations in connection with the killings of Premi and his son.
The latest move marks a broader push by the J&K agency to reopen decades-old militancy-era cases and pursue leads that could establish the roles of those allegedly responsible.