Four Pandit homes in Wandhama stand as relics of a 1998 massacre

What Happened

In the Kashmiri village of Wandhama, located in Ganderbal district near the Srinagar-Ladakh highway, four rundown brick-and-stone houses once belonging to Kashmiri Pandits remain. The structures survive as weathered remnants amid newer concrete homes and growing vegetation. The area’s memory centers on a mass killing that occurred on the night of January 25-26, 1998, when militants in Army fatigues entered Wandhama, gathered Pandits, and opened fire, resulting in 23 deaths, including four children and nine women. Five of the deceased were guests of Pandit families, and one teenager survived by hiding in a charcoal-filled house after fleeing through the village when the gunfire subsided. Two weeks before the reporting, an elderly couple’s reunion highlighted memories of those days, underscoring how the event remains a defining moment for both Pandits and the village.

The police action tied to the case progressed with the Jammu & Kashmir Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) opening an investigation into the Wandhama killings on August 25, 2026. This step forms part of an ongoing effort to re-examine the 1990s militancy-era violence against Kashmiri Pandits in the valley.

Why It Matters

The continuation of investigations into the Wandhama killings indicates continued attempts to address past violence and hold it to account, even as the village evolves with new infrastructure and rebuilt homes nearby. The remnants of the Pandit households—four structures that locals say survive while three other Pandit houses were purchased and replaced—underscore how a community confronts memory while undergoing demographic and architectural change. The timing of the SIA’s latest inquiry places this event within a broader pattern of revisiting historic crimes associated with the 1990s exodus and militancy in Kashmir.