Hriday Nath Wanchoo

Hriday Nath Wanchoo (d. 1992) was a Kashmiri communist trade-unionist, who is remembered for ensuring the socioeconomic upliftment of sanitation workers and documenting abuse of human rights by the state.

Career and politics Wanchoo was employed as the Khilafarzi officer in Srinagar municipality.

Death Wanchoo was assassinated by "unidentified gunmen" on 5 December 1992. Local activists accused the government of having released two militants in exchange for an extrajudicial execution, one of whom would be killed in an "encounter"; Human Rights Watch noted Wanchoo's murder to fit into the state's brutal suppression of conversations on human rights.

CBI Investigation Within days, the state government roped in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the murder who concluded a local militant group called "Jamait-ul-Mujahidin" — comprising twelve Kashmiri Muslims — to have planned the assassination. However, by the time the investigation concluded, four of the accused had died and five had absconded, leaving only three — Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, a budding separatist; Mohammad Shafi Khan, a faculty member of the University of Kashmir specialising in Persian; Ghulam Qadir Bhat, a constable with the Jammu and Kashmir Police — for trial under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act before a special court in Jammu.

The judgement appears to be unconvincing among scholars; Seema Kaji and Sumantra Bose continue to suspect the Indian state to have had a role in the murder.