Srinagar, August 25, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police has reopened the investigation into the 1998 Wandhama massacre, in which 23 Kashmiri Pandits were killed in Ganderbal district, nearly three decades after the case was registered.
The SIA said it has relaunched investigations into several cases involving the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, including the Wandhama massacre. The renewed probe will focus on identifying the terrorists and their associates and establishing their roles in the killings.
On January 25, 1998, terrorists entered the homes of Kashmiri Pandit families in Wandhama village and killed 23 people, including nine women and four children.
According to the account of the incident, a group of terrorists dressed in army uniforms appeared in the village on the eve of Republic Day. They reportedly interacted with members of the community and asked Kashmiri Pandit families to assemble at one place before opening fire.
The victims belonged to four families who had remained in the Valley after militancy erupted in the early 1990s.
An FIR was registered at Ganderbal police station following the massacre, but the case remained unsolved for years. Police have linked the killings to terrorists associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The reopening of the case forms part of a wider SIA effort to revisit unresolved terror cases and bring those responsible to justice.
The agency has also reopened investigations into the 1989 killings of prominent Kashmiri Pandit figures Tika Lal Taploo and Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo.
Taploo, a lawyer and BJP vice-president in Jammu and Kashmir, was shot dead near his residence in Srinagar in September 1989. Justice Ganjoo, who had sentenced JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat to death, was shot dead by suspected JKLF terrorists at Hari Singh Street on November 4, 1989.
Officials said the SIA recently conducted raids at several locations across Jammu and Kashmir as part of the reopened investigations.
The agency has also completed its probe into the 1990 killing of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhatt and filed a 737-page chargesheet naming banned JKLF chief Yasin Malik as a key accused in her kidnapping and murder.
Earlier this month, the SIA conducted raids at multiple locations in connection with the 1990 double murder of Kashmiri Pandit writer and social worker Sarwanand Koul Premi and his son Virender Koul in Anantnag district.
Officials said the reopening of these cases is part of a broader effort to revisit terrorist killings committed since the separatist violence began in Kashmir in the early 1990s.
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