A second threat letter targeting Kashmiri Pandits has surfaced in Jammu, barely two weeks after the first communication warned members of the community working in the Kashmir Valley to “change their ways”. The latest letter is more disturbing in one crucial respect: it reportedly carries specific residential details of those targeted, including house numbers and street names.
Sabrang India has accessed the latest letter through the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) but is withholding publication for security risks and reasons. The communication which names around half a dozen Kashmiri Pandits and identifies their residential locations in different parts of Jammu. The individuals have been described as “white collar terrorists” and “traitors” allegedly working for their “masters” in Delhi. The letter, purportedly signed by an individual named Ahmed Bilal and issued in the name of the United Liberation Council (ULC), carries an explicit warning: “wherever you are and wherever you go, we are watching your every move.”
Security agencies are examining the authenticity of both letters and attempting to identify those behind them. Officials have previously suggested that the ULC could be another front or shadow organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The group first surfaced publicly in July, when it issued a poster marking the death anniversary of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, according to officials cited by The Indian Express.
What makes the latest communication particularly alarming is its apparent attempt to establish a distinction within the Kashmiri Pandit community itself. The letter reportedly claims that Kashmiri Pandits who remained in the Valley after the mass migration of the 1990s are not its target and are “safe”. Its threats are instead directed at those who migrated and subsequently returned to Kashmir for government employment, as well as individuals accused by the letter of attempting to implement an “RSS agenda” in the Valley. That distinction is significant because the latest threats appear closely tied to the government’s rehabilitation and employment programme for displaced Kashmiri Pandits.
The detailed report on the first threatening letter may be read here.
A second letter, a deeper concern
The latest communication follows an earlier threat letter circulated online earlier this month. That letter reportedly named Kashmiri Pandit employees working in the Revenue Department and published their phone numbers. According to The Indian Express, the communication attempted to associate their government duties with the seizure of properties allegedly linked to terrorists.
The first letter had already triggered significant security concerns. The Jammu and Kashmir administration reportedly instructed departments to allow Kashmiri Pandit employees to remain away from work and advised them to stay alert and move to safer locations if necessary. There was, however, no publicly available formal order governing the reported work-from-home arrangement. Different accounts placed the period of leave at August 20, August 25 or until Independence Day.
The second letter changes the nature of the threat. The earlier communication exposed telephone numbers. The latest reportedly exposes residential addresses, down to the house and street level. According to the Indian Express, officials said this is the first time in several decades that threat communications targeting Kashmiri Pandits have reportedly contained such precise residential information. That raises a question that goes beyond the contents of the letters themselves: how are individuals issuing anonymous threats gaining access to such detailed information?
Sanjay Tickoo: ‘How can the government talk about return when it cannot guarantee safety?’
Speaking to Sabrang India on the second threat letter, Sanjay Tickoo, president of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, sharply questioned the political narrative around the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley. He pointed specifically to remarks by Jammu and Kashmir BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Ashok Koul, who, while speaking in Shopian, described the return of Kashmiri Pandits as a positive development but said that targeted killings would not stop and that the community would have to face challenges and struggle while rebuilding their lives in Kashmir. For Tickoo, the statement exposes a fundamental contradiction. “How can he say targeted killings won’t stop?” he asked, arguing that if the government accepts targeted violence as an unavoidable reality, then the Union government must also acknowledge the failure of its security and rehabilitation policies rather than celebrating the return of Kashmiri Pandits without addressing the risks they face. He questioned the idea of presenting the return of Pandits as a success while employees continue to fear for their lives.
Tickoo also pointed to what he described as an even more alarming development in the second letter: additional personal information has reportedly been exposed, including the registration number of one employee’s vehicle. According to him, this suggests that the problem may extend beyond information already available on social media and raises questions about possible leaks from within the departments where Kashmiri Pandit employees work. He argued that the increasing presence of PM Package employees across government departments has made them more visible, but also potentially more vulnerable, particularly if confidential information is being accessed by people within or around those institutions. Tickoo questioned the government’s repeated attribution of the threats to an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba offshoot without first establishing how such precise information is reaching those issuing the threats.
He also raised concerns about overground workers (OGWs) and the security network within government institutions. Referring to reports that hundreds of suspected OGWs had been re-arrested ahead of Independence Day, Tickoo drew a parallel with the 1990s and claimed that, based on his experience, people associated with overground militant networks have existed across different government departments. His concern, he said, is not about labelling individuals without evidence, but about the inability of ordinary employees to know who may have access to their personal information or who can potentially compromise their security. If the government says the threats originate from a LeT-linked group, he asked, how can it establish that conclusively rather than simply attribute every such incident to an organisation operating from across the border?
For Tickoo, the government’s handling of the work-from-home arrangement further demonstrates the problem. Even after the first threat letter, he said, there was no clear official communication informing Kashmiri Pandit employees that they could work from home. The decision was instead conveyed informally, with Independence Day security arrangements becoming an additional reason for employees to remain away from their workplaces. Now that the second letter has emerged, Tickoo said, there is again no clarity over whether employees are expected to return to their offices or continue working from home. “What now?” is the question confronting employees who have already been named and identified.
At the heart of Tickoo’s concern is what he describes as a security problem that may be internal as much as external. The government may identify a militant organisation behind the threats, but that does not answer how the names, phone numbers, residential addresses and even vehicle details of vulnerable employees are reaching those circulating the letters. Tickoo argues that the increasing visibility of Kashmiri Pandits employed across government departments under the PM Package must be accompanied by a corresponding system of protection and data security. Otherwise, the very employment programme intended to facilitate rehabilitation could make employees easier to identify and target.
He also questioned the repeated denial of threats by the Union government and the Lieutenant Governor’s administration since 2019. If authorities continue to insist that there is no broader threat to Kashmiri Pandits, Tickoo asks, how will the latest series of threats, the circulation of increasingly detailed personal information and the continuing fear among employees ever be addressed? For him, the issue is no longer simply whether another threat letter is genuine. It is whether the State is prepared to acknowledge the insecurity faced by the community—and take responsibility for making its promised return to the Valley genuinely safe.
Notably, in his conversation with Sabrang India after the first threat emerged, Tickoo had argued that the latest threat cannot be treated as an isolated incident. For him, the more troubling question is how personal information of Prime Minister’s Package employees continues to reach those issuing threats. Tickoo said that lists containing the names and details of package employees have been circulating on social media for years, including after the 2022 threats, and alleged that the information being used in the latest episode is drawn from the same publicly available lists.
He said the government must establish how such information is being accessed and circulated and why, despite repeated meetings with the Home Department since 2022, no effective solution has emerged. He also pointed to the contradiction at the heart of the rehabilitation policy: employees are expected to return to Kashmir and continue living and working in the Valley, but when threats emerge, they are asked to remain indoors or leave for safer locations. “If such situations happen, Kashmiri Pandits feel unsafe and then move out,” Tickoo said, arguing that they then risk losing the limited benefits attached to a package that requires them to continue living and working in the Valley.
He further questioned the absence of a formal government order directing employees to stay home, suggesting that authorities often avoid putting such decisions in writing because doing so would amount to acknowledging a security failure and could invite legal scrutiny. For Tickoo, the said episode is therefore not merely about another threat letter; it is about the erosion of confidence in the security establishment and the growing contradiction between asking Kashmiri Pandits to return and failing to make that return secure and sustainable.
The detailed report may be read here.
The issue is particularly sensitive because the targeted employees are not simply members of the Kashmiri Pandit community. They are among those who have returned to the Valley under the government’s rehabilitation and employment framework.
Around 6,000 Kashmiri Pandits have been provided government employment under the Prime Minister’s Special Employment Package, introduced in 2010 to facilitate the return and rehabilitation of those displaced from Kashmir following the outbreak of armed insurgency in 1990. The package was designed around the idea that employment could help facilitate the community’s return to the Valley. But the latest developments expose the vulnerability at the heart of that model.
Employees are encouraged to return to Kashmir to work. Yet when threats emerge, they are advised not to attend their workplaces, remain indoors or move to safer locations. Those specifically named in the threats have reportedly been shifted to Jammu. The contradiction is increasingly difficult to ignore: a policy premised on return cannot be sustained if returning employees repeatedly have to be evacuated for their own safety.
The shadow of 2022
The latest threats also carry the memory of the violence of 2022. That year, militants carried out a series of targeted attacks against Kashmiri Pandit employees, killing five. The attacks triggered prolonged protests by employees appointed under the Prime Minister’s Package, who demanded that they be transferred out of the Valley and posted in Jammu. The government did not agree to permanently transfer them to Jammu. Instead, employees were moved to locations in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley considered comparatively safer. The protests exposed a fundamental disagreement over the meaning of rehabilitation.
For the employees, safety was a precondition to remaining in Kashmir. For the government, continued employment in the Valley remained central to the rehabilitation framework. The latest threats have brought that unresolved tension back to the surface.
‘This threat should not be taken lightly’
The seriousness of the situation has also been acknowledged by the political leadership. After the first letter had surfaced, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had warned that the threats against Kashmiri Pandit employees could not be taken lightly, particularly given the history of targeted killings of minorities in the Valley.
He said that some employees had wanted to leave following the earlier threats but had effectively been confined to their camps for security reasons. According to NDTV, he called for action against those responsible and urged authorities to ensure the safety of Kashmiri Pandit employees.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, after the first threat, called for the Union Home Ministry to investigate the threats and questioned why Kashmiri Pandits have been specifically targeted when people of different faiths continue to live and work in Kashmir. He also questioned the use of social media to circulate the threats and asked who was behind the communications.
Security concerns are widening
The threats have emerged amid a broader deterioration in the security environment in parts of Kashmir. On July 22, a policeman was killed in Anantnag town after terrorists allegedly fired at him at close range. Nine days later, on July 31, two migrant workers from Chhattisgarh were killed at a brick kiln in Kulgam. The incidents have contributed to renewed concerns about the vulnerability of civilians, migrant workers and minorities.
The security environment has also affected the Amarnath Yatra. The pilgrimage began on July 3 and was scheduled to continue until August 28. The traditional Anantnag-Pahalgam route was suspended on July 23, while the Yatra was subsequently curtailed and suspended from August 9. Officials cited low pilgrim footfall, weather advisories and repair work on the tracks among the reasons for the changes. It is against this backdrop that the second threat letter has surfaced.
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