Fresh threat letters revive fear among Kashmiri Pandits
Government employees from the Kashmiri Pandit Hindu minority working in the Kashmir Valley have received a new wave of threat letters exposing their addresses and phone numbers, raising fears over a data leak and sparking political controversy.
Members of the Kashmiri Pandit community — Hindus who fled Kashmir's Muslim-majority valley during the militant uprising of the 1990s — are again facing fear after a fresh round of threatening letters. Surfacing in the last week of August, the letters named several civil servants who returned to the valley under India's federal rehabilitation scheme, listing their Jammu home addresses, vehicle registration numbers and phone numbers.
Government employee Anil Koul told DW that similar letters had appeared in early August, but the newest batch included personal details that have also been circulated on social media. He urged authorities to trace the source of the leak.
The letters are attributed to a little-known group calling itself the United Liberation Council, which security officials suspect may be a front for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. Authorities have not confirmed the letters' authenticity or the group's existence. The letters draw a line between Pandits who never left the valley, described as "safe," and those who returned under the rehabilitation program, accused of serving outside "masters."
Political controversy
Farooq Abdullah, president of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and a former chief minister, called the threats a "conspiracy" meant to delay the restoration of statehood lost in 2019. His comments questioning why other Hindu officers were not similarly threatened drew criticism from Pandit groups and the ruling BJP.
Government records show 44,167 Kashmiri migrant families registered as having left since 1990, of which 39,782 were Hindu. Sanjay Tickoo, head of the Kashmiri Pandit Struggle Committee, said the threats must be seen against a backdrop of targeted killings and unresolved security concerns dating back to 2022, adding that repeated meetings with officials have achieved nothing. No confirmed targeted killing of a Kashmiri Pandit has occurred since October 2022.
Analysts say security measures alone are not enough, calling for sustained reconciliation and trust-building between communities alongside physical protection for returnees.
