Srinagar, August 24, 2026 – kashmir Jammu and Kashmir State Investigating Agency (SIA) has reopened the investigation into the 1998 Wandhama massacre in an effort to solve the long-pending cases of targeted killings that took place during the peak of terrorism in Khin. In this terrorist incident 28 years ago, 23 Kashmiri Pandits were brutally murdered in a single night.
According to the report, SIA has recently raided many places in Kashmir Valley in connection with this massacre. The investigation team is now trying to identify the terrorists and over-ground workers involved, establish their roles and collect new evidence.
What was this inhuman massacre?
republic dayOn the eve of 25 January 1998 and during Shab-e-Qadr in Ramzan, terrorists armed with large quantities of weapons carried out the massacre. The terrorists had entered the houses of the surviving Kashmiri Pandit families in Wandhama village of Ganderbal district. There he shot and killed 23 people including 9 women and 4 children. This attack wiped out almost the entire Hindu population in the village. Only one teenager could survive. Despite FIR being registered at Ganderbal Police Station, this case remained pending for almost three decades.
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Investigation into the murder of Justice Ganju and lawyer Taplu
Along with the Vandhama investigation, the SIA was involved in the initial stages of counter-terrorism. Kashmiri PanditsThe investigation into two other high-profile murders has also been expedited. The first incident is of 13 September 1989, in which the then vice-president of BJP and famous lawyer Tika Lal Taplu was murdered in Jammu and Kashmir. He was shot near his house in Srinagar. This was one of the first targeted attacks that signaled the beginning of the campaign against Hindus.
The second incident is of 4 November 1989, in which Justice Neelkanth Ganju was murdered. He was a retired judge who had awarded death sentence to JKLF founder Maqbool Bhatt. Justice Ganju was shot dead by terrorists on Hari Singh Street in Srinagar.
Chargesheet filed in Sarla Bhatni murder case
These steps have been taken after significant progress in old cases. In June 2026, SIA had filed a detailed 737-page charge sheet in the case of kidnapping, torture and murder of Kashmiri Pandit nurse Sarla Bhat in 1990. In this, jailed JKLF chief Yasin Malik and others were made accused. In August, the agency had conducted searches at nine places in the Union Territory in connection with the 1990 Bewdi murder case of writer and social worker Sarwananda Kaul Premi and his son Virendra Kaul. Officials say that the reopened investigation has achieved great success in identifying the culprits and their accomplices, even though some of the suspects are dead or absconding.
Manoj Sinha assured justice
terrorism Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has repeatedly given assurance to pay renewed attention to these pending cases related to RTI. He had said that every family of the victim of terrorism will get justice. Lieutenant Governor Sinha has consistently emphasized that the long delay in accountability and rehabilitation is now coming to an end. He said that the administration is committed to ensuring that every eligible family affected by terrorism gets assistance and pending cases are investigated to hold the culprits accountable. LG Sinha has said that we will not sit idle until every family gets justice.
The administration took big steps
The LG administration has also taken some concrete steps, which include providing government jobs to the family members of the victims, registering FIRs in cases where FIRs have not been lodged, restoring seized properties and ending the terror ecosystem that has sometimes silenced the voices of victims. Investigators are continuing to examine evidence, interrogate people and investigate so that the culprits can be punished.