Searches at 9 locations across J&K in 1990 killing of Kashmiri Pandit writer, son

The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of Jammu and Kashmir carried out searches at nine sites across the region on Wednesday in relation to the investigation of the alleged abduction and murder of Kashmiri Pandit writer and social worker Sarwanand Koul Premi and his son, Virender Koul. The pair were killed in 1990 in Soaf Shali, Kokernag, Anantnag.

The First Information Report (FIR) pertaining to the case was lodged at Dooru Police Station, Anantnag, and is presently being probed by the SIA. Reports indicate these searches signify a crucial step forward in the ongoing investigation, as the SIA intensifies its efforts to unravel the circumstances of the killings and advance the probe towards a "decisive" phase.

Koul, a Kashmiri writer, poet, and research scholar, served as a teacher in the J&K education department from 1954 to 1977. He and his son were slain in May 1990; their bodies were discovered hanging from a tree several kilometers from their residence. Following the incident, the surviving family members abandoned the valley for Jammu.

The SIA officers from J&K conducted a search in connection with the 1990 double-murder case in Anantnag on Wednesday. This marks the second such case the SIA is handling this year. Earlier in June, the agency filed a chargesheet after investigating the murder of Sarla Bhat, a 27-year-old nurse at the Neonatology Department of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Soura.

Her body was discovered on the Mallabagh-Omer Colony Road in Srinagar on April 19, 1990. The SIA’s 737-page chargesheet, submitted in a special NIA court in Srinagar, indicted the then chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Yasin Malik, as a principal accused in her abduction and murder. This probe concluded that her death was "part of JKLF’s organized campaign of targeted killings against members of the Kashmiri Pandit community, aimed at instilling terror, driving mass migration, and advancing its secessionist agenda."