Kashmiri Pandit government employees working in the Valley have reportedly been asked to remain at home following the circulation of an online threat letter warning them to “change their ways” and publishing the names and phone numbers of some employees. The development has triggered renewed concerns over the safety of members of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community employed in Kashmir and has once again brought into focus the unresolved question of whether security measures that restrict their movement can constitute a sustainable rehabilitation policy.
According to The Indian Express, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has informally instructed government departments to allow Kashmiri Pandit employees to remain away from work and to remain alert, with some reportedly advised to move to safer locations. Sources cited by the newspaper said the instructions were particularly directed towards departments such as School Education and Revenue. However, there is no publicly available formal government order confirming the arrangement.
The New Indian Express similarly reported that Pandit employees had been asked to work from home “for some time”, with one Prime Minister’s Package employee telling the newspaper that they had been instructed to remain away from work until August 25. Other reports have put the period at August 20 or August 15, reflecting the absence of a clearly communicated formal order.
The discrepancy has also been acknowledged by government officials. The Indian Express quoted Naseer Ahmad Wani, Director of School Education, as saying that no instructions had been issued to employees to work from home or take leave and that government employees were continuing to report for duty. His statement came after school principals reportedly told the newspaper that they had received verbal instructions to be lenient with the attendance of migrant employees and subsequently to ask them to remain at home.
The reported threat letter has been attributed to a group calling itself the United Liberation Council (ULC). Police are still verifying its authenticity. Security officials cited by Free Press Kashmir suspect that the group may be a front or “shadow” outfit of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. According to a police officer quoted by The Indian Express, the group first surfaced in July, when it released a poster marking the death anniversary of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
The alleged letter specifically targeted Kashmiri Pandits who reside outside the Valley but work in Kashmir. Six employees were reportedly named, all belonging to the Revenue Department. The threat purportedly sought to connect their government duties with the seizure of properties allegedly associated with militants or terrorists. The letter is also reported to have claimed that the group possessed details of the employees’ families and locations.
The publication of the employees’ personal information has itself become a major security concern. The New Indian Express reported that Kashmiri Pandit groups have questioned how the names and phone numbers of the six employees became publicly available, asking whether the disclosure represented a security lapse, a breach of confidentiality or a deliberate leak. The Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) called for the loopholes to be identified and for vulnerable employees to be protected before the situation deteriorates further.
Panun Kashmir convenor Dr Agnishekhar also called for a comprehensive threat assessment of all persons named in the letter and their immediate families. He urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to direct the police and security agencies to review the security arrangements for Pandit employees, particularly those working in sensitive government departments.
The threat comes against the backdrop of a renewed security alert in the Valley following a series of attacks. Two migrant workers from Chhattisgarh were killed at a brick kiln in Kulgam on July 31. The Indian Express reported that the threat letter emerged approximately a week after the killings. The Wire, meanwhile, placed the developments within a broader sequence of recent attacks, noting the killing of policeman Ashiq Hussain Qureshi in a busy marketplace in Anantnag on June 22 while he was deployed for Amarnath Yatra duty, followed by the killing of the two migrant workers in Kulgam.
Against this backdrop, security arrangements have reportedly been intensified around areas inhabited by Kashmiri Pandits. According to The Wire, police and security forces have increased night patrols, checkpoints, frisking and surveillance at vulnerable locations and important entry and exit points across Kashmir ahead of Independence Day. A security review chaired by Kashmir Zone Inspector General of Police V.K. Birdi reportedly brought together senior officials from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, BSF, CRPF, SSB, ITBP, Railway Protection Force, intelligence agencies, traffic police and the Army, besides district police chiefs.
The security review reportedly focused on arrangements for Independence Day celebrations, particularly the main function at Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium. Officers were directed to strengthen checkpoints during night hours, intensify area domination and patrolling in sensitive areas and maintain heightened surveillance and inter-agency coordination.
The security measures have coincided with the reported restrictions on Kashmiri Pandit employees. The Wire reported that some minority employees had been asked to work from home until Independence Day, while KPSS president Sanjay Tickoo told the publication that Pandit employees had been asked not to leave their residential colonies or report to their offices. Other reports, however, have cited August 20 and August 25 as the end dates communicated to employees.
The varying accounts underline an important feature of the current situation: the reported restrictions appear to have been communicated primarily through informal or departmental channels rather than through a publicly accessible government order. This has created uncertainty not only about the precise scope and duration of the restrictions but also about their legal and administrative basis.
For Kashmiri Pandit employees, staying indoors also does not necessarily resolve the underlying security problem. Sunny Raina, president of the All Prime Minister’s Package Employees, told The Indian Express that employees had been asked to remain at home after the threat posters appeared but argued that this was not a solution. Employees still need to purchase groceries, obtain medicines and maintain ordinary social lives. The concern is therefore not simply whether they can be protected inside their homes or colonies, but whether they can safely participate in ordinary public and professional life.
The issue is particularly significant because employment in Kashmir forms an integral part of the government’s rehabilitation policy for displaced Kashmiri Pandits. Over the years, approximately 6,000 people have received benefits under the Prime Minister’s Special Rehabilitation and Employment Package, under which beneficiaries are required to work in the Valley. The All Prime Minister’s Package Employees association, however, puts the number of such employees currently posted in Kashmir at around 9,000. The reported decision to keep employees away from their workplaces therefore creates an obvious tension within the rehabilitation programme itself. A policy designed to facilitate the return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley cannot be reduced to physical relocation without also ensuring that those employees are able to live, work and move with reasonable security and dignity.
This is not the first time the government’s approach to the safety of Pandit employees has been questioned. In 2022, a series of alleged militant attacks targeted Kashmiri Pandit employees, killing five people. The attacks prompted prolonged protests by employees demanding permanent transfers outside Kashmir. According to Sunny Raina, employees protested for approximately 350 days and sought transfers to Jammu. He alleged that the administration refused the demand and that salaries were withheld for six months, eventually forcing employees to return to work. The government instead relocated some employees to areas within the Valley considered comparatively safer.
The current situation therefore revives a problem that has remained unresolved since those attacks: whether security can be meaningfully guaranteed while employees continue to be required to work in the Valley, and whether repeated periods of confinement or informal leave can substitute for a long-term security and rehabilitation strategy.
There are also questions surrounding the manner in which employees’ attendance and movement are being managed. The Indian Express reported that online GPS-based attendance has been made mandatory for teachers in Kashmir, while migrant employees have reportedly been exempted and permitted to record their attendance in an arrival book. Such exemptions may be understandable as an immediate security precaution, but they also demonstrate the extent to which the threat environment has disrupted the ordinary functioning of public employment.
The situation is unfolding alongside a broader intensification of security and administrative activity in Kashmir ahead of Independence Day. The Wire reported increased police checking and frisking, additional checkpoints and night patrols, as well as enhanced surveillance around sensitive areas and event venues.
At the same time, authorities have intensified the government’s Har Ghar Tiranga–Vande Mataram campaign across Jammu and Kashmir. District administrations and BJP workers have reportedly organised Tiranga rallies, mass recitations of Vande Mataram and the National Anthem, quizzes, marathons, sporting and cultural programmes, cleanliness drives and other public-outreach activities. The campaign also includes programmes involving students, youth, women and grassroots communities, with events marking 150 years of Vande Mataram.
According to The Wire, some government teachers and employees have also been asked through internal WhatsApp groups to share photographs of themselves with the national flag. There is reportedly no publicly available formal order mandating such photographs. A government teacher quoted by the publication said that when senior education officials share photographs with the flag in departmental groups, their conduct can effectively operate as an unofficial instruction for subordinate employees to do the same, including on their WhatsApp statuses.
Alongside these developments, security agencies have continued operations against individuals and organisations accused of radical or separatist activities. The Wire reported that the Counter-Intelligence Kashmir unit arrested two men, Mehran Qazi of Dooru in Anantnag and Babar Hamid Dar of Sopore, for allegedly circulating radical and anti-national content online. Police also reportedly conducted simultaneous searches at 26 locations in Sopore as part of an investigation concerning the activities and network of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami. The searches, carried out with CRPF assistance, reportedly covered Sopore town and several surrounding villages, with documents, literature and electronic devices seized for examination.
Jamaat-e-Islami was declared an unlawful association by the Union Home Ministry in 2019 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, with the government alleging separatist and militant links.
In another development, police obtained an order from an NIA court to attach property valued at approximately ₹69.82 lakh belonging to Parvaiz Ahmad Famda in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. According to The Wire, the action relates to a 2008 militancy-linked case registered at Chandoosa police station under provisions of the EIMCO Act, the Ranbir Penal Code and the UAPA. The property reportedly comprises 12 kanal, one marla and 73 square feet of land. An arrest warrant has also reportedly been obtained against another accused in the case.
Taken together, these developments reveal a Valley operating under an increasingly dense security apparatus as Independence Day approaches. Keeping threatened employees indoors may provide an immediate precaution, but it cannot be the endpoint of a rehabilitation policy. Nor can informal instructions, varying leave periods and the absence of a transparent government order provide employees with certainty about their rights, duties or safety.
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