Nationwide Convention chief Farooq Abdullah has questioned why Kashmiri Pandit workers had been receiving risk letters whereas senior Hindu officers posted in Jammu and Kashmir weren’t. He alleged that the threats had been a part of a conspiracy by the Union Territory’s Lieutenant Governor-led administration to create worry and stop the restoration of statehood.
The explosive allegation by the previous Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister comes days after two letters purportedly issued by the little-known United Liberation Council (UCL) focused Pandit workers and revealed their private particulars. The ULC, sources in safety companies suspect, is a proxy of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Farooq Abdullah’s claims, nonetheless, differ from the place beforehand taken by his son and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
The BJP accused Farooq Abdullah of casting doubt on Islamist threats and trivialising the struggling of Kashmiri Hindus. BJP nationwide spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari mentioned Abdullah was extending “comfortable help to terrorists”.
“This is similar pro-terror mindset that compelled Kashmiri Hindus out of the Valley and allowed the discharge of 70 hardcore terrorists!” Bhandari mentioned in a put up on X.
The controversy additionally comes amid the reopening of decades-old circumstances involving the kidnapping and killing of Kashmiri Pandits throughout the peak of armed insurgency, including poet Sarwanand Koul Premi, his son and nurse Sarla Bhat.
Simply weeks earlier, US Ambassador Sergio Gor visited Srinagar on August 19 and met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Gor described Jammu and Kashmir as “an vital a part of India” and praised the improvement in its security situation.
Whereas the senior Hindu officers that Farooq Abdullah is referring to are in all-India and central providers, and due to this fact, short-term residents, Kashmiri Pandits had been everlasting dwellers of the Valley earlier than they had been pushed out by jihadi forces. Terrorists have tried to scuttle the efforts of the federal government to assist Kashmiri Pandits return to their ancestral homeland.
Such threats unfold panic among the many Kashmiri Pandit neighborhood, which has confronted persecution and was compelled to flee, abandoning their properties. Whereas the senior authorities officers who Farooq Abdullah is referring to are in all-India and central providers jobs, and briefly stationed in Kashmir. Kashmiri Hindus belong to the Valley and there was effort to assist them to rehabilitate them of their homeland. That is one thing that the terrorists are not looking for.
FAROOQ LINKS THREATS TO KASHMIRI PANDITS TO J&Okay STATEHOOD
The political confrontation started after Abdullah questioned the allegedly selective nature of the threats whereas talking in Anantnag on Wednesday.
He pointed to senior Hindu civil and law enforcement officials serving in Jammu and Kashmir and requested why that they had not acquired comparable threats. Abdullah then straight accused the Lieutenant Governor-led administration of being accountable for the intimidation marketing campaign.
“Who’s giving this risk? Do not Kashmiri Pandits dwell right here? Inform me, all of the officers listed here are from outdoors and are Hindus. The DIG, DGP, SSPs and district SPs are Hindus. The DCs are Hindus. Why are they not getting this risk? The query is, if Hindus are getting this risk, why are they not getting this risk? It is a conspiracy, and I’m saying this actually,” Abdullah mentioned.
“This conspiracy is simply making an attempt to maintain this area disadvantaged of statehood, and an atmosphere of worry is being created. They’re roaming all around the world and saying peace has come and we’ve got ended militancy. Then the place is that this coming from? Reply me,” he added.
Abdullah additionally questioned Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, below whose administration the police and public order equipment perform within the Union Territory.
“The Lieutenant Governor, who has all of the police and all of the individuals right here, why does not he reply this? Ask him. The place is that this coming from? Who’s giving this risk? I’m accusing them. These individuals are issuing this risk, and they’re accountable for this risk,” he mentioned.
Whereas Abdullah questioned why senior Hindu officers confronted no threats, these named within the letters by terrorists had been authorities officers too.
Safety companies have been analyzing the authenticity and origin of the 2 risk letters to Kashmir Pandits.
Whereas there have been calls for for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood from the events primarily based within the Valley, the Centre’s last assurance over it came in March 2025. Dwelling Minister Amit Shah mentioned that the statehood could be restored however refused to reveal the timeline publicly.
“We now have given the reassurance that statehood shall be restored. From the very starting, we’ve got mentioned that statehood could be given,” Shah mentioned at an occasion. Extra not too long ago, in February 2026, Union Legislation Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal indicated that folks would “quickly hear a couple of resolution”, with out asserting one.
BJP ACCUSES FAROOQ ABDULLAH OF MOCKING PANDITS
The BJP described Abdullah’s assertion as an try and discredit threats confronted by the minority neighborhood as a substitute of confronting the terrorist organisation behind them.
“Farooq Abdullah’s assertion is a comfortable help to the terrorists. Farooq Abdullah’s assertion is similar as Sonia Gandhi’s assertion on Batla Home, when, as per Salman Khurshid, she had tears in her eyes for the terrorists at Batla Home,” Bhandari mentioned.
“Farooq Abdullah additionally says that Kashmiri Hindus have by no means been subjected to such abuse. There might be no extra painful assertion than this. This makes it clear that Farooq Abdullah is doing injustice to Kashmiri Hindus,” he added.
The BJP spokesperson argued that evaluating protected senior officers with Kashmiri Pandit workers ignored the totally different safety circumstances below which they lived and labored. He alleged that Abdullah’s remarks mirrored the identical political mindset that failed to stop the neighborhood’s exodus from the Valley in 1990.
The rise of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, focused killings and public threats compelled most Kashmiri Pandits to flee the Valley in and round 1990, leaving thousands of families displaced across India. The Kashmir-based rights group Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti estimated that 399 Kashmiri Hindus had been killed by terrorists between 1990 and 2011, of which 75% had been throughout the first 12 months of the armed insurgency.
CM OMAR WARNED AGAINST TAKING THREATS LIGHTLY
Farooq Abdullah’s claims differ sharply in tone from the place beforehand taken by his son and CM Omar Abdullah. After the primary letter surfaced in August, Omar requested police and intelligence companies to guard the staff and establish these accountable.
“Focused killings of minorities have taken place. Many workers had been planning to flee, however they had been locked inside their camps. This risk shouldn’t be taken evenly. There needs to be motion in opposition to those that are behind such threats, and the safety of Kashmiri Pandit workers needs to be ensured,” Omar mentioned on August 14.
Following the second letter, Omar once more referred to as for a full investigation.
“This has grow to be a critical concern. They shouldn’t be receiving threats in any respect. The legislation and order and safety administrations, together with the police and our intelligence companies, should not take these issues evenly. They should make headway to find out the place these threats are emanating from,” he mentioned.
TWO THREAT LETTERS TO KASHMIRI PANDITS SURFACED IN AUGUST
Two separate letters from terror outfit ULC, focusing on Kashmiri Pandits, surfaced in August. Intelligence and police sources described the ULC as a possible front of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The primary letter, dated August 7, named six Kashmiri Pandit workers reportedly working within the Income Division and revealed their phone numbers. It claimed to own details about their households, houses and workplaces, warning that they might be focused even when they moved to Jammu.
The second letter was dated August 23. It named six Pandits and disclosed extra intensive private data, together with residential addresses, house and street details, telephone numbers and car registration numbers.
“As already warned, wherever you might be and wherever you go, we’re watching your each transfer,” the letter mentioned. Each letters had been signed by an individual figuring out himself as Ahmad Bilal, the ULC’s “media coordinator”.
Such threats unfold panic among the many Kashmiri Pandit neighborhood, which has confronted persecution and was compelled to flee, abandoning their properties. Whereas the senior authorities officers who Farooq Abdullah is referring to are in all-India and central providers jobs, and briefly stationed in Kashmir. Kashmiri Hindus belong to the Valley and there was effort to assist them to rehabilitate them of their homeland. That is one thing that the terrorists are not looking for.
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