Malik Denies Role in Sarla Bhat Murder, Points to Khursheed Chalkoo Part-I

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Mohammad Yasin Malik, in a detailed affidavit before a Srinagar court, has categorically denied any role in the 1990 rape and murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat. He disputes prosecution claims that he ordered her killing in revenge for an alleged tip-off to security forces, calling the case a belated, fictional reconstruction built on decades-late statements and an unproven handwritten note. Malik instead points to long-suspected cross-border guide Khursheed Chalkoo, citing an Intelligence Bureau officer’s 1991 account that security agencies believed Chalkoo was involved. Emphasising his severe injuries and near-death condition after the Narwara raid, Malik argues he was physically incapable of directing or participating in the crime and insists Bhat was an innocent civilian wrongly portrayed as an informer.