Threatening letters revive fears among Kashmiri Pandits
Leaked addresses and phone numbers have reignited fears among Hindu government employees who returned to Muslim-majority Kashmir under a rehabilitation scheme.
A fresh series of threatening letters targeting Kashmiri Pandit government employees has renewed concerns among those who have returned to the region following an Indian government rehabilitation initiative. The letters, discovered in the final week of August, contained personal information such as addresses, vehicle registration numbers and phone numbers.
These details have also been disseminated on social media, as reported by Anil Koul, a government employee who alerted authorities to the possible leak. The letters are believed to originate from a lesser-known group calling itself the United Liberation Council, which security officials suspect may be a front for the Pakistan-based Islamist militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The group emerged in July, when it posted a memorial marking the death anniversary of a former militant leader. Authorities have yet to verify the authenticity of the letters or the existence of the group behind them. The latest threats have heightened tensions, with the president of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), Farooq Abdullah, accusing the letters of being a conspiracy aimed at delaying statehood restoration.
Pandit community representatives argue that the threats are part of a long-standing security issue, citing targeted killings and repeated security concerns faced by Hindu officers in the Valley. At least seven Pandit government employees were killed by militants between 2020 and 2022, with the last confirmed killing occurring in October 2022.
The Kashmiri Pandit Struggle Committee (KPSS) estimates that around 6,500 Pandits who never left the Valley, along with an additional 4,000 who have returned as government employees, reside in India-administered Kashmir. However, the reintegration process has been fraught with challenges. Rahul Pandita, a journalist and author of Our Moon Has Blood Clots: A Memoir of a Lost Home in Kashmir, criticized the government's rehabilitation policy, stating that it falls short of adequately addressing the community's concerns.
He argued that as long as Islamist militancy persists in the region, Kashmiri Hindus will continue to face threats.
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