Return of 1990s threat letters to Kashmiri Hindus! Lashker-e-Islam orders them to leave Kashmir Valley immediately

SRINAGAR: In more worrying developments, the Kashmiri Pandits living in Kashmir’s Baramulla and other areas have once again received threat letters asking them to leave the Kashmir Valley immediately. The threat letters issued to them have brought back the haunting memories and fear of the 1990s during which several minority community members had received similar threat letters asking them either to convert to Islam, leave Jammu and Kashmir or face death.   

This time, the threat letters to the Kashmiri Pandits have been issued by a local terror outfit Lashker-e-Islam. The copies of the threat letters are widely in circulation on social media. The threat letters issued by Lashker-e-Islam have been addressed to the president of the Migrants Camp in Hawal and Migrants Camp in Baramulla.

The letter said, ‘We order Kashmiri Pandits to leave Kashmir immediately, otherwise your entire family will be harmed - we are not scaring you but this land is only for Muslims and those who accept Islam, and this is the land of Allah, Hindus cannot stay here.” The note ended with a warning, “our brothers are attending what has been left unattended in 1990.”

The issuance of the threat letters has once again instilled fear in the hearts of Kashmiris Pandits and they have been desperately calling the local authorities and their relatives to save them.

It may be mentioned that on the 13th of April, Satish Singh, a local Rajput belonging to Pombay Kakran village was shot dead which sent tremors across the whole minority community living in the Kashmir Valley. Earlier on April 4, Bal Krishan Bhat, whose family runs a medicine store in Chotigam of the Shopian district, was shot at by terrorists outside his shop. Bhat was admitted to the 92 Base Hospital of the Indian Army in Srinagar where his condition stabilised. 'The Resistance Front' - a shadow outfit of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba - later claimed responsibility for the attack. After the incident, the BJP demanded the formation of a commission to probe the Kashmiri Pandit genocide.

Satish Mahaldar, Chairman, J&K Peace forum, has appealed to the authorities and the majority population of Kashmir to help the minorities living under the shadow of constant fear and threat to their lives in Kashmir Valley.

He also urged the majority population to come forward and protect the existence and the ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within the region of Kashmir and encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity.

The letter was written by Satish Mahaldar, Chairman, J&K Peace forum, reads:

“I take the view that it is part of my duty to reach out to every section of the people and understand their problems, their aspirations, their doubts, and their fears.  It is my responsibility to communicate with my people about the nature of the task of building the Jammu and Kashmir state and the duty of every citizen to contribute to making Jammu and Kashmir a modern, strong, prosperous, just, humane and peaceful state. In this hour of time when minority communities, especially Kashmiri pandits are engulfed in rumours of violence and death, I urge the majority population to come forward and protect the existence and the ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within the region of Kashmir and encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity.

“Majority population should take measures to create favourable conditions to enable persons belonging to minorities to express their characteristics and develop their culture, language, religion, traditions and customs. It is the duty of the majority to protect the minority, be it religious, racial or linguistic. It is a self-evident rule. It is a rule that is firmly rooted in the universality of humanity. I urge muftis, ulemas, molvis and others across the Valley should come forward and save pluralistic society at large.”

“Nevertheless, we must always remember that pluralism is our inheritance. Pluralism should be our strength. It is only due to the thoughtless words and actions of some that we have, sadly, allowed our diversity to become differences.  We should not turn our back on our history and our heritage. We should not discount or diminish our unique strength; nor view our pluralism as a source of perennial conflict.”

“There had been often lone actors informally aligned individuals who mobilize to violence with little or no clear organizational structure or direction. These individuals often consume material deliberately disseminated to recruit individuals to causes that attempt to provide a sense of belonging and fulfilment, however false that sense might be. Their ideologies are  fluid, evolving, and overlapping.”

“And they can, in some instances, connect and intersect with conspiracy theories and other forms of disinformation and misinformation. One key aspect of today’s threat emerges from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and networks whose racial, ethnic, or religious hatred leads them toward violence, as well as those whom they encourage to take violent action. In some cases, lone actors /individuals may develop their own idiosyncratic justifications for violence that defy ready categorization.”