Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is reportedly planning to establish several local front organisations in Jammu and Kashmir to covertly gather intelligence on residents — with Kashmiri Pandits identified as primary targets, according to security officials. The alleged strategy, disclosed on 24 August, involves using these proxy networks to facilitate targeted killings and spread fear across the region.

How the Front Organisations Operate

According to an official briefed on the modus operandi, members of these groups make contact with local residents under the guise of routine interaction, collecting details such as workplace addresses, residential locations, and phone numbers. This information is then relayed to handlers operating from across the border in Pakistan.

An Intelligence Bureau official named one such group — the United Liberation Council (ULC) — as an example of organisations set up for this purpose. 'These organisations are dangerous as they masquerade as normal fronts, pretending to work for the society,' the official said, adding that their actual function is to covertly leak sensitive personal information to facilitate terror operations.

Threat Letters Circulating with Personal Details

Security agencies have flagged a fresh wave of threat letters currently in circulation, targeting Kashmiri Pandits who have been considering returning to the Valley and rebuilding their lives there. Notably, the latest letters reportedly contain precise personal details — including home addresses and phone numbers — of specific individuals, including those living outside Jammu and Kashmir.

Officials say this level of specificity is a direct consequence of ISI-backed front groups successfully harvesting personal data on the ground. The letters, according to officials, demand that Pandits leave, convert, or face death — echoing the terror campaign that drove the community out of the Valley beginning 19 January 1990.

Shift in Tactics After Article 370 Abrogation

Since the abrogation of Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir has been largely peaceful, encouraging a number of Kashmiri Pandits to return and reclaim properties and livelihoods abandoned during the 1990 exodus. Officials say this renewed interest in return has made the community a renewed focus of ISI-backed destabilisation efforts.

With overt threats increasingly difficult to execute in the current security environment, the ISI is reportedly pivoting to subtler tactics — circulating threat letters at regular intervals and amplifying fear through coordinated social media posts. 'The recent hit jobs in the valley were examples of its planning,' an official said, noting that the precision of recent targeted killings pointed to advance intelligence gathered through exactly such networks.

Warning to the Public and Officials

Security officials have issued a public advisory urging residents and government functionaries who interact with members of such organisations to exercise caution about sharing personal information. 'People and officials must be careful while passing on information as it would be used to carry out hit jobs and also spread panic and fear in Jammu and Kashmir,' an official warned.

The disclosures come as agencies intensify surveillance of suspected front groups across the Union Territory, with the ULC under particular scrutiny. How effectively these networks can be dismantled before they enable further violence will be a critical test for security forces in the months ahead.