A new wave of threatening letters targeting Kashmiri Pandits — members of the Hindu minority community who fled the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley during a militant uprising in the 1990s — has deepened fears among those who have returned to the region as civil servants under an Indian government federal rehabilitation scheme. The latest letters, which surfaced in the last week of August, named several employees. The letters also included their Jammu residential addresses, vehicle registration numbers and phone numbers.
"Similar threat letters surfaced in early August, but the latest contains our Jammu residential address, vehicle and phone numbers, which have also been shared on social media," Anil Koul, a government employee, told DW, urging authorities to investigate the source of the leak. The letters have been attributed to a little-known group calling itself the United Liberation Council, which security officials suspect could be a front for the Pakistan-based Islamist militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group reportedly first surfaced in July, when it released a poster marking the death anniversary of a former militant commander.
Authorities have yet to confirm the letters' authenticity or the existence of the group behind them. The latest letters also distinguish between Pandits who never left the Valley — and are therefore "safe" — and those recruited under New Delhi's rehabilitation program, who are accused of working for "masters" outside Kashmir. The fresh threats have also triggered a political row.
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, called them a "conspiracy" aimed at delaying the restoration of statehood, which the region lost in 2019. Abdullah also questioned why Hindu officers from outside the region were not facing similar threats. His remarks drew sharp criticism from Kashmiri Pandit groups and the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which accused him of being insensitive to the community's fears.
Government records show 44,167 Kashmiri migrant families registered as having left since 1990 citing security concerns, of which 39,782 were Hindu. For Pandit community representatives, however, the latest threats are part of a much longer security problem. Sanjay Tickoo, president of the Kashmiri Pandit Struggle Committee (KPSS), said the threats should be viewed against the backdrop of targeted killings and repeated security concerns faced by Pandit government employees in the Valley.
He blames security lapses and says repeated meetings with officials since a wave of killings in 2022 have failed to resolve their concerns. "Since 2022, meetings have resulted in nothing," Tickoo told DW. He also wondered how those making the threats have access to employees' personal details.
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