The Jammu and Kashmir government has reopened after 33 years the murder case of a Kashmiri Pandit judge who had sentenced Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Maqbool Bhat to death, prompting BJP leaders and Right-wing ecosystem to claim that the Manoj Sinha-led administration was reinvestigating all Pandit-related militancy killings in Kashmir.

The decision came months after the Supreme Court dismissed a curative petition filed by a Kashmiri Pandit group — Roots in Kashmir (RIK) — seeking a high-level investigation into the killings of Pandits.

The Jammu and Kashmir government’s investigating arm — State Investigation Agency (SIA) — has sought public assistance to investigate the murder of Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo who was killed on November 4, 1989 in Srinagar by militants.

Pandit groups have been lobbying hard with the government to reopen probes into community killings despite repeated setbacks in the Supreme Court.

Amit Raina, spokesman for the RIK that spearheads the campaign, said the government had in recent times discussed with them some high-profile cases they intended to investigate. He said they included the cases of Ganjoo and Sarla Bhat. Sarla, a nurse, was tortured, gang-raped and murdered by militants.

"But there are hundreds of families waiting for justice. There should be a time-bound investigation in these cases,” Raina told The Telegraph.

Raina said the police have registered 219 FIRs in 284 killings but he claimed the number of victims was more.

Swapna Raina, Ganjoo’s granddaughter, said the decision had reignited a sense of optimism in her.

“We have waited too long for justice to be served. I sincerely hope that reopening of Justice Neelkanth Ganjoo’s case will be one of the hundreds of cases that will follow and will bring some sense of relief and closure,” she said in a video message.

Ganjoo had sentenced Maqbool Bhat to death in 1968. Bhat’s execution was carried out in 1984. The judge’s murder featured in The Kashmir Files and calls for reviving investigations into Pandit killings have peaked after the film was released last year.

Although the SIA statement made no mention of the government reopening cases of Pandit killings, BJP politicians and other influential pro-government social media handles claimed all cases were being reopened.