(Kashmir Rechords Exclusive)
Few episodes from Kashmir’s turbulent past are as astonishing as this one. Twice in April 1990, newspapers declared Yasin Malik dead. Four months later, he was arrested alive!
Thirty-six years later, as the public demands the harshest punishment for Yasin Malik’s role in terrorist violence and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has filed over 700-page chargesheet in the murder of Sarla Bhat, this extraordinary contradiction hidden in Jammu Kashmir’s newspaper archives deserves renewed attention.
Among the thousands of newspapers painstakingly preserved by Kashmir Rechords Foundation lies one of the most intriguing mysteries of the early militancy era.
Declared Dead—Not Once, But Twice
The first report appeared in the 9 April 1990 edition of The Kashmir Times.
Quoting official security sources, the newspaper reported that security forces had killed the so-called “Commander-in-Chief” of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Yasin Malik, and another militant during an operation in Srinagar. Several other militants were also reported to have been arrested. Simultaneously, almost identical news was carried by another leading J&K newspaper–Daily Excelsior on the same day!
Nine days later, on April 18, 1990, history appeared to repeat itself.
Both Daily Excelsior and The Kashmir Times once again carried front-page reports, again quoting official security sources, claiming that Yasin Malik had been killed. The reports stated that several senior JKLF commanders had either been arrested or eliminated during security operations, and Yasin Malik’s name once again figured among those reported dead.Not once.But twice.
The reports carried all the hallmarks of authenticity. They relied on official briefings issued at a time when militancy was rapidly engulfing the Valley and newspapers depended heavily on information released by the security establishment.
The August Plot Twist: Arrested Alive
Barely four months later came a stunning reversal.
On 7 August 1990, the same newspapers carried another prominent front-page story announcing what was described as a “major breakthrough.”
This time, Yasin Malik and dreaded JKLF Deputy Commander-in-Chief Hamid Sheikh were reported to have been arrested alive during security operations in Srinagar. Their photographs accompanied the reports.
The contradiction was impossible to ignore.
How did a man who had been officially reported dead twice in April 1990 suddenly reappear alive in August, 1990? The question has remained unanswered for more than three decades.
Sarla Bhat’s murder received barely a passing mention
The irony becomes even more striking when these editions are read alongside another tragedy unfolding at the same time.
On April, 18 1990, while newspapers prominently carried the story of Yasin Malik’s alleged death for the second time, Sarla Bhat, a young Kashmiri Pandit nurse, was abducted and brutally murdered by terrorists on the same day.
The irony is tragic: the very week official briefings vacillated on whether Yasin Malik was dead or alive, nurse Sarla Bhat was silenced forever.
When newspapers reported the incident in their 20 April 1990 editions, her murder occupied only a few lines, without the outrage, sustained attention or prominence that such a horrific crime deserved. Like countless other targeted killings during those violent months, her murder quickly disappeared from the headlines.
Justice, however, did not.It merely took thirty-six years to begin moving again.
Recently, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) filed a chargesheet running into more than 700 pages, alleging that Sarla Bhat was murdered on the directions of Yasin Malik—the very man who had been declared dead twice in newspaper reports earlier that same month before later being arrested alive.
The sequence of events makes the archival record all the more compelling.
Media Failure or Intelligence Tactics? Who Got It Wrong
The preserved newspaper clippings do not, by themselves, indict the newspapers. Both Daily Excelsior and The Kashmir Times clearly attributed the reports to official security sources.
That raises several important questions. Was it an intelligence failure? Was it part of a psychological warfare strategy intended to create confusion within militant ranks by spreading reports of a senior commander’s death?
Or was it simply a consequence of the chaos that defined Kashmir in the spring of 1990, when rumours, intelligence inputs and official briefings often outpaced independent verification?
There is another possibility that cannot be ignored. The media of that era functioned under convenient compromise or extraordinary pressure, operating amid curfews, censorship concerns, targeted killings and collapsing communication systems. Much of what appeared in print originated from official briefings, leaving little room for independent verification. Whether journalists were merely reproducing official information or whether competing narratives were being shaped through selective leaks remains a subject worthy of deeper historical research.
Whatever the explanation, the preserved editions of Daily Excelsior and The Kashmir Times, now part of the archival holdings of Kashmir Rechords Foundation, remind us why newspapers are more than yesterday’s news.They are historical evidence. They preserve not only events but also contradictions, unanswered questions and narratives that demand fresh scrutiny decades later.
Sometimes history is not rewritten by new discoveries. Sometimes, it is rediscovered in old newspapers.
