Yasin Malik To Divorce Pak Wife, Won't Challenge Death Penalty In Nurse Murder

Yasin Malik, the chief separatist leader and head of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), has informed a Srinagar court that he no longer intends to challenge the death penalty in the Sarla Bhat murder case. The court, heard his 25-page written statement through his lawyer, Abu Adil Pandit, and has set a September 19 hearing date.

Malik, currently incarcerated in Tihar jail, also announced his decision to divorce his Pakistani wife, artist and activist Mushaal Hussein Mullick. In his statement, Malik claimed he was falsely implicated due to political circumstances but emphasized that his decision did not equate to an admission of guilt. Sarla Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit nurse at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, was abducted in April 1990 during the height of militancy in the Valley; her body was recovered days later.

The case remained unsolved for over thirty years, deepening the fear and insecurity within the Kashmiri Pandit community. The State Investigation Agency (SIA) re-opened the case in 2025, leading to Malik's conviction in a separate terror-funding case in May 2022, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The National Investigation Agency has since sought to enhance his life sentence to the death penalty.