Kashmiri Pandit activist held in connection with online threat posters that targeted community in Valley

Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested a Haryana-based Kashmiri Pandit activist for alleged “cyber terrorism” following a complaint with regard to threatening online posters directed at members of the community posted in various government jobs in the Valley.

Rakesh Handoo was picked up from his Faridabad home earlier this month following a complaint by a fellow Kashmiri Pandit, who alleged that posters shared by the activist online had put him in a “vulnerable position”.

Police say they arrested Handoo after he failed to appear when summoned in an investigation related to the posters. However, his family members said Handoo drove to Kashmir after a police team came to Haryana looking for him.

Handoo has been booked under Section 66F (which defines and penalises the offence of cyber terrorism) and Section 84C of the Information Technology Act based on a complaint filed by the Pandit employee with the Baramulla police.

In its grounds of detention handed to the family, police cited Handoo’s X account repeatedly circulating “threat-related electronic material purporting to originate from Soldiers of Resistance United Liberation Council which in its original form (referred) to another person bearing a similar name. There (is) deliberate alteration and commission of the (offence through) electronic material…”

Sources said the complainant had told the police that the threat posters bore the name of another person with a similar name to his, but Handoo deliberately referred to him and thus “made him vulnerable”.

Handoo’s family said the police team arrived at their Faridabad home on October 17. “They (police) said that he (Handoo) needs to present himself before the police just for a day,” his son Sahil told The Indian Express. “They (police) didn’t tell us anything about the charges. He (Handoo) drove to Srinagar in his own car with the policemen.”

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Sahil said his father’s statements are publicly available on social media platforms. “He used to say that there should be an investigation into who is issuing these threats to the Kashmiri Pandits,” he said. “He was asking for an investigation. Isn’t this (the arrest) stifling the voice of people?”

Sent to 5-day police remand

On Tuesday, Handoo was sent on a 5-day police remand. “He has been booked under 66F, which is a scheduled offence and is tried in NIA court,” Handoo’s lawyer Aazim Pandit told The Indian Express.

In August this year, a series of posters threatening Kashmiri Pandit employees working in the Valley had appeared on social media. The posters published in the name of a group called United Liberation Council asked the Pandits working in the Valley to “change their ways”.

The letters also had the names and phone numbers of some migrant employees, mostly working in the revenue department. Six of the employees threatened in these posters worked in the revenue department and were posted in the Deputy Commissioner’s Office in Srinagar.

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While police had said that they were verifying the authenticity of these posters, the J&K government had sent the Kashmiri Pandit employees working in the Valley on administrative leave for two weeks.

In September, the employees had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention and asked for an investigation into the online threats to the community.

As part of their rehabilitation, around 6,000 Kashmiri Pandits received benefits under the Prime Minister’s Special Rehabilitation and Employment Package for Kashmiri migrants over the years. One of the conditions for their recruitment was that they work in the Valley. Pandit employees say that overall, around 9,000 minority employees are posted in Kashmir Valley.

Handoo came into the limelight in 2008 when he stood against National Conference president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah in the Assembly elections from Hazratbal constituency in Srinagar. Handoo, however, managed to garner just 199 votes.