New Delhi, Jan 31 While Pakistan’s propaganda machinery prepares to stage another so-called annual “Kashmir Solidarity Day” on February 5, its dreaded intelligence agencies continue to work through terror proxies to threaten the elimination of Kashmiri intellectuals who expose Islamabad’s state-sponsored terrorism.
In the latest development, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – functioning under a proxy name of The Resistance Front (TRF) – has issued a death threat to well-known counter-terrorism expert Junaid Qureshi, inform sources.
The threat was delivered through an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform, using TRF’s branding to Qureshi, the Director of the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS).
Calling him a “traitor,” the TRF explicitly stated in the message that it would have “no hesitation” in eliminating him.
Incidentally, this is the second such threat within six months against people who raise Pakistan’s terror connections in the global sphere, exposing Islamabad’s involvement in a proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir. The seriousness of this threat is underscored by the earlier patterns in violence against Kashmiri voices.
Between 1989 and 2020, Pakistan‑backed terrorist outfits have killed more than 5,000 civilians, journalists, politicians, and intellectuals who opposed its terrorism or stood in support of India.
The assassination of Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari in June 2018, after repeated threats from Hizbul Mujahideen, remains one stark reminder. More recently, social activist Ghulam Rasool Magray was murdered in Kupwara in April last year by suspected terrorists, further illustrating the pattern.
Qureshi, speaking to a media outlet, alleged that Pakistan’s Inter‑Services Intelligence (ISI) orchestrated the threat, executed through the LeT and its commander, Sheikh Sajjad Gul.
He pointed out that the communication referred to certain sensitive details about a proposed Kashmiri intellectual think tank, where the information is not available on public domain, with details confined only to a limited number of people.
Thus, the exercise has a strong indication of the direct involvement of intelligence agencies, he said.
Qureshi further underscored how the communication specifically targeted his efforts at dismantling Islamabad’s propaganda mechanism on Kashmir and presented such documented instances on global platforms.
It is also apparent that his own background contributed to the observation, providing additional sources. He is the son of Hashim Quraishi, one of the hijackers of an Air India aircraft in January 1971.
The IC‑405 plane, flying from Srinagar to Jammu, was hijacked by Hashim and Ashraf Quereshi of the separatist terror organisation Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
They took the aircraft to Lahore, where the then Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, met the hijackers. They were persuaded to release the crew and passengers, who then returned home by road through Amritsar.
Islamabad had refused New Delhi’s request to fly them back in a replacement plane, and the hijackers had the parked aircraft torched later. However, Junaid Qureshi has consistently rejected his father’s ideology, calling the hijacking an act of terrorism – an incident that took place even before he was born.
Meanwhile, he has been constantly proving through EFSAS that Pakistan’s claim of a “freedom struggle” in Kashmir is actually a state‑sponsored terror campaign run by the LeT, Hizbul Mujahideen, and Jaish‑e‑Mohammed under the ISI’s supervision.
Sources have also confirmed that the encrypted account used to issue the threat is operated from Rawalpindi under the direct control of LeT commander Sheikh Sajjad Gul.
This account was created on August 24, 2025, under a pseudonym and has been routinely disseminating TRF propaganda, including operational updates and photographs, establishing Islamabad’s hand behind the threat. This episode has once again brought to the fore the contradictions in Pakistan’s Kashmir narrative.
While Islamabad publicly proclaims “Kashmir Solidarity Day” every year, its intelligence agencies continue to deploy terror groups to intimidate, silence, and eliminate Kashmiri voices that challenge Islamabad’s narrative within the region and on international fora.
--IANS
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