Jammu, Aug 24: The State Investigation Agency (SIA) has reopened the investigation into the 1998 Wandhama massacre in which 23 Kashmiri Pandits were killed, as part of a wider move to revisit long-pending cases of targeted killings during the peak of violence in the Valley.
According to an India Today report, the SIA is pursuing fresh leads in the Wandhama case, including attempts to identify the terrorists and those who allegedly assisted them and establish their roles in the killings.
The report said the agency recently conducted raids at multiple locations in the Kashmir Valley in connection with the Wandhama massacre and the killing of Kashmiri Pandit leader Tika Lal Taploo.
The SIA has also stepped up investigations into the killings of Taploo and Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo, while recently reopening cases related to Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat and writer Sarwanand Koul Premi and his son Virender Koul, India Today reported.
23 Pandits killed in Wandhama
The Wandhama massacre took place on January 25, 1998, when heavily armed militants entered the homes of Kashmiri Pandit families in Wandhama village of Ganderbal district and killed 23 people, including nine women and four children.
The killings took place on the eve of Republic Day and during Shab-e-Qadr, one of the holiest nights of Ramadan.
The case remained unresolved for decades.
The renewed investigation comes amid intensified efforts by the SIA to revisit cases of targeted killings dating back to the late 1980s and 1990s.
Taploo, Ganjoo killings also under probe
Taploo, a prominent lawyer and then Jammu and Kashmir BJP vice-president, was shot dead near his residence in Srinagar in September 1989.
His killing was among the early targeted assassinations of prominent Kashmiri Pandits during the onset of militancy in the Valley.
The SIA has also intensified its probe into the killing of Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo, who had sentenced JKLF terrorist Maqbool Bhat to death.
Justice Ganjoo was shot dead by suspected JKLF militants at Hari Singh Street in Srinagar on November 4, 1989.
The renewed probes follow recent investigative activity in other decades-old cases.
In June, the SIA filed a 737-page chargesheet in the 1990 killing of Sarla Bhat, naming jailed JKLF chief Yasin Malik as the alleged mastermind.
Earlier this month, the agency conducted searches at nine locations in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the killing of writer Sarwanand Koul Premi and his son Virender Koul.
According to India Today, investigators are examining old cases and pursuing leads that could help identify surviving accused, militants and their associates in the killings.
