By Deepika Bhan

New Delhi, May 25 (IANS): 'The Kashmir Files' actress Bhasha Sumbli, who played the stunning role of Sharda Pandit in Vivek Agnihotri film, has said that Yasin Malik should have been given the death sentence.

A separatist who masterminded the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in 1989-90, Malim was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by the NIA court in the terror funding case in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Terming the sentence as "too little", Bhasha said, "Anything less than death sentence to the rapist and terrorist cannot be considered justice for the Kashmiri Pandits."

She said Malik, who had killed four Indian Air Force officers in cold blood, and "killed or raped innocent Kashmiri Hindu men, women and children", cannot just get away with a life sentence and monetary fine.

"He must be hanged, and hanged soon, so that he does not use his time in prison to mastermind yet another kidnapping and demands for his release at the cost of innocents," Bhasha said, adding: "As a Kashmiri Hindu victim of jihadi violence and genocide, I can only hope and pray he gets the sentence. That would be real justice."

A displaced Kashmiri Pandit, Bhasha grew up in a Delhi migrant camp amid all the trauma and misery where she saw people fighting each other for bread and blankets.

In 'The Kashmir Files', Bhasha's character Sharda is the daughter of Pushkar Nath, played by Anupam Kher. She portrays the wife of telecom engineer B.K. Ganjoo, who was killed while hiding in a drum, and then Sharda was forced to eat rice soaked with his blood.

The scene from the film is based on an incident that took place in the Chhota Bazaar locality of Srinagar in March 1990.

In the last scene of the movie, Bhasha portrays Girija Tickoo, a laboratory assistant in a government school in Kashmir, who was gang-raped and cut alive with the help of a carpenter's saw in June 1990.