KPSS Demands Urgent Action as Fresh Threats Push Kashmiri Pandit Employees Back Into Fear
This is the second ULC-linked communication in less than three weeks. An earlier poster circulated around August 7 similarly named the six employees—some from the Revenue Department—and published their phone numbers while threatening both Pandit staff and local police personnel
SRINAGAR: The Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) on Tuesday, in a sharp and urgent call to the Jammu and Kashmir administration, demanded that the online threats to the minority community employees working under the Prime Minister’s Special Employment and Rehabilitation Package in the Valley be immediately investigated, security guaranteed, personal information protected, ancestral property rights safeguarded, and that the right to return be treated as a matter of justice and security—not courage and chance.
The appeal comes in the backdrop of a renewed threat issued by an obscure militant outfit calling itself the United Liberation Council (ULC), which surfaced online on August 23. The communication carried names, residential addresses, phone numbers and vehicle registration details of Kashmiri Pandit employees—an alarming level of specificity that has raised questions about possible leaks or access to official records.
The ULC message declared that its target was not the Kashmiri Pandits who stayed in the Valley in 1990 but those who left, accusing them of conspiring against the majority community. Warning against becoming pawns of an “illegal regime,” the online threat said, "Non-migrant Pandits who stayed in the Valley and did not fall for false promises of then-Governor Jagmohan are safe and no one is opposed to them.” It added, "All those Pandits who migrated from the Valley are hypocrites and traitors. They are targeted not because of their religion but because of their traitorous actions and conduct.” Security agencies, who suspect ULC to be a Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy, are verifying the authenticity and origin of the threat, but the circulation of such identifiable personal data has already triggered deep anxiety.
This is the second ULC-linked communication in less than three weeks. An earlier poster circulated around August 7 similarly named the six employees—some from the Revenue Department—and published their phone numbers while threatening both Pandit staff and local police personnel. Following that episode, departments quietly advised PM Package employees to remain on leave until around August 20, and security at transit colonies was strengthened. Although officials later clarified that no formal work-from-home order had been issued, the unease among employees was unmistakable.
The latest threat comes amid renewed militant activity in the Valley. On June 22, India Reserve Police head constable Ashiq Hussain Qureshi was killed in a sudden “shoot-and-scoot” attack in Anantnag. On July 31, militants opened fire at a brick kiln in neighbouring Kulgam, critically injuring two migrant labourers from Chhattisgarh—both of whom later died. These incidents shattered a period of relative calm and heightened fears among minority communities, particularly Kashmiri Pandit employees who have long been considered soft targets. Today, between 6,000 and 9,000 PM Package employees continue working in the Valley—many in fortified colonies—despite persistent risks.
Community organisations have responded swiftly. The All PM Package Employees Forum Kashmir wrote to the Chief Secretary on August 24 seeking immediate security enhancement and a review of arrangements at workplaces and residences. Panun Kashmir convenor Dr. Agnishekhar termed the threats “a matter of grave concern,” urging a comprehensive threat assessment for employees and their families. KPSS, representing Pandits who stayed in the Valley during the 1990 exodus, described the publication of confidential data as a “chilling vulnerability,” bluntly warning- “Fix the loopholes. Protect the vulnerable—before history repeats itself.”
KPSS argued that the present situation cannot be dismissed as mere digital noise. The medium of intimidation has changed—from walls, posters and mosque loudspeakers to screens and encrypted channels—but the message remains painfully familiar, its president Sanjay K. Tickoo said in a signed statement. He added that the psychological objective is unchanged, which is to make a Kashmiri Pandit feel that his birthplace is conditional, his presence temporary, and his safety dependent on someone else’s permission. The organisation stressed that a Kashmiri Pandit does not become an outsider because extraordinary circumstances forced him to leave his ancestral home. Nor does the passage of decades convert belonging into intrusion. “The right to remember one’s home cannot be criminalised. The right to return cannot be portrayed as provocation. And the right to live without fear cannot be reduced to a request for sympathy,” Tickoo noted.
He said that recent remarks attributed to BJP General Secretary (Organisation) J&K, Ashok Koul—suggesting that “targeted killings won’t stop”—have further unsettled the community. The KPSS leader said that brotherhood is valuable, but brotherhood cannot substitute for protection, sentiment cannot replace security, assurances cannot replace intelligence and appeals to harmony cannot replace accountability. "If targeted violence is spoken of as something that may simply continue", he asked, "what exactly is being promised to families encouraged to return?"
The deeper irony, KPSS argued, is stark-Kashmiri Pandits are told their return is essential for restoring Kashmir’s pluralism, yet when they return, they are expected to adjust, to be patient, to trust, and to demonstrate faith—again and again. “How many times must the victim prove his commitment to Kashmir before Kashmir proves its commitment to him?” Tickoo asked.
KPSS has emphasised that the majority community cannot be held collectively responsible for the crimes of militants, but society must examine the environment in which intimidation emerges, personal data circulates, and threats reappear. “The real test of a society,” he said, is not how loudly it mourns after a killing—it is whether it recognises the warning before the killing”.
KPSS asserted that the Kashmiri Pandit community has already paid an immeasurable price for institutional failures of the past and it must not be asked to pay another price merely for believing that it still belongs to its own homeland. “The Valley cannot claim to have turned the page while the same chapter reappears whenever a Kashmiri Pandit is threatened,” Tickoo said, adding that the time has come for words to acquire substance.”.
