Nearly four decades after Kashmiri Pandit writer Sarwanand Koul Premi and his younger son were allegedly abducted and brutally killed by militants, the J&K state investigation agency (SIA) raided nine locations in connection with the case. The chilling double murder, which has remained etched in Kashmir’s history for decades, is part of the SIA’s widening probe into unresolved militancy-era killings targeting the Kashmiri Pandit community.
The case was originally registered at Dooru police station in Anantnag. It has been taken over by the SIA. On Wednesday, the probe team conducted searches in six locations in Rajouri district, two in Jammu and one in Kashmir. The searches focused on properties of individuals believed to be linked to the conspiracy behind the abductions of Premi and his son.
The Kashmiri Pandit writer and social worker and his 27-year-old son Virender were abducted from their Anantnag home on the night of April 29, 1990. It was the early phase of militancy in the Valley, when the minority Hindu population was mercilessly targeted. Premi’s murder was the first major killing of a Kashmiri Pandit, setting the tone for the mass exodus of the community from the region.
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