Jammu: Panun Kashmir on Tuesday demanded a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the fresh terror threats, warning that recurring threats and targeted violence cannot be allowed to become a “normalised” reality for a displaced community.
It said the use of personal details in threat communications raises serious questions about the source and flow of such information, and stressed that the continued atmosphere of fear risks perpetuating the consequences of the community’s displacement rather than enabling its secure and dignified return to Kashmir.
The latest threat letter, purportedly issued on August 23 by the United Liberation Council (ULC) which is believed to be a shadow of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, names several Kashmiri Pandit employees recruited under the Prime Minister’s Special Package.
The document, which went viral on social media, included confidential information such as Jammu residential addresses, vehicle numbers and phone numbers.
“Whenever the facts disclose a terror-linked conspiracy, there must be a thorough investigation by the NIA. The question is not merely who issued these threats, but who supplied the personal information, who collected it, who accessed it, who transmitted it and who facilitated the entire chain.
“If we are serious about the secure and dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits, we must identify and dismantle the machinery that continues to generate fear,” the group said in a statement here.
It sought a categorical clarification from the BJP over general secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul’s reported remarks that targeted killings would not stop and that “brotherhood” was needed, asking whether this reflected the party’s official position on the security and return of Kashmiri Pandits.
“The Kashmiri Pandit community needed more than routine statements and political clarity from the BJP on terrorism, the community’s displacement and its return to Kashmir,” it said.
It warned against what he described as the “normalisation” of recurring threats and targeted killings, saying such an approach could perpetuate the consequences of the community’s displacement.
“The objective of governance cannot be to teach a displaced community how to live permanently with risk. The objective must be to eliminate the structures, factors and conditions that generate that risk,” It said.
The group said when the risk of renewed targeting prevents members of the community from returning, “risk itself becomes an instrument of continued displacement”.
It said the continued vulnerability of Kashmiri Pandits could not be allowed to become the “new normal”.
“Do not be frightened, but do not become accustomed to fear. That distinction is vital,” the Pandit group told the community, adding, “Fear must never become normal. Exile must never become normal. Our absence from our homeland must never become normal.”
It said Panun Kashmir viewed return not merely as the physical relocation of individuals but as the “secure, collective and dignified restoration” of the community in its homeland.
“Return must mean security, justice, restitution, political empowerment and institutional guarantees,” it said.
It asked the BJP to clarify whether it stood merely for rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits or for the “complete restoration” of their secure and dignified existence in Kashmir.
“Does it believe that targeted killings must be accepted as inevitable, or does it believe that every threat must be pursued to its source?” the group asked.
It also questioned whether the consequences of displacement should simply be managed or whether they should ultimately be reversed.
