After a threat letter was posted online warning Kashmiri Pandits working in the Valley to “change their ways”, and publishing the details of some of them, the Jammu and Kashmir government is learnt to have instructed departments under it to send Kashmiri Pandit employees on leave. The government is also learnt to have asked them to remain alert and move to safer places.
This letter emerged around a week after the two migrant workers were killed at a brick kiln in south Kashmir’s Kulgam on July 31, putting the security establishment on high alert.
Police sources say they are verifying the authenticity of the letter circulated online by a group called the United Liberation Council, which could be another front of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
“This group first surfaced in July when it released a poster on (Hizbul Mujahideen commander) Burhan Wani’s death anniversary,” a police officer said. “It seems to be another shadow group of Lashkar.” Police sources say the letter warned Kashmiri Pandits who reside outside Kashmir but work here to “change their ways”.
The letter also had the names and phone numbers of some employees. Officials said all six employees named in the letter are with the Revenue Department. Police sources said the letter attempts to link their work to the government seizing properties of terrorists.
While the government has not issued a formal order, verbal instructions are learnt to have been passed to various departments, particularly schools and the Revenue Department, to tell Kashmiri Pandits to stay at home.
A principal of a government school said they were initially told to be lenient about migrant employees’ attendance. “First, we were verbally told to allow special leave for them on August 5 (the anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370). Then, we were informed that they should be asked to stay home for some time,” a school principal said.
When contacted, Naseer Ahmad Wani, Director, School Education, said that no orders have been issued to any employee. “We have not asked any employee to work from home or take leave,” he told The Indian Express. “All employees are regularly coming to duty.”
When he was informed that some school principals have confirmed granting special leave to employees, he said he had no knowledge of it.
As part of their rehabilitation, around 6,000 people received benefits under the Prime Minister’s Special Rehabilitation and Employment Package for Kashmiri migrants over the years. One of the conditions is that they work in the Valley. The All Prime Minister’s Package Employees (APMPE) president Sunny Raina said that around 9,000 such employees are posted in the Valley.
He told news agency, “We have been told to stay home after these posters came up, but that is not a solution to our problem,” Raina said. “We have a social life as well. I have to go to the market to fetch household items, to get medicines.”
Sources said that while security for migrant employees has been enhanced, as a precautionary measure, they have been asked not to attend work until August 20. Sources said that the employees whose names were circulated have been asked to be particularly vigilant.While the government has made online GPS-based attendance mandatory for teachers in Kashmir, migrant employees have been exempted and are allowed to mark their attendance in an arrival book, it is learnt.
In 2022, militants carried out a string of attacks on migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees. Five people were killed in these attacks, prompting a protest demanding transfers outside Kashmir. The government refused to accept the demand and posted people in locations considered safer in other parts of the Valley.
Raina said they protested for 350 days at the time. “We wanted a permanent transfer to Jammu, but L-G sahib didn’t listen. He stopped our salary for six months, forcing us to resume our duties,” he claimed.