NEW DELHI: As Pakistan prepares to observe its annual “Kashmir Solidarity Day” on February 5, its intelligence-linked terror networks continue to threaten Kashmiri voices who expose Islamabad’s role in state-sponsored terrorism. In the latest incident, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), operating under its proxy name The Resistance Front (TRF), has issued a death threat to prominent counter-terrorism expert Junaid Qureshi, Director of the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), sources said.
The threat, delivered via an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform using TRF branding, labelled Qureshi a “traitor” and warned that the group would have “no hesitation” in eliminating him. This marks the second such threat in six months against individuals highlighting Pakistan’s terror links internationally. Between 1989 and 2020, Pakistan-backed terror groups killed over 5,000 civilians, journalists, politicians, and intellectuals in Jammu and Kashmir. High-profile cases include the 2018 assassination of Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari and the 2023 killing of social activist Ghulam Rasool Magray in Kupwara.
Qureshi has alleged that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) orchestrated the threat through LeT and its commander Sheikh Sajjad Gul, noting that the message referenced confidential details of a proposed Kashmiri intellectual think tank not available publicly—indicating intelligence agency involvement. He said the threat directly targeted his efforts to dismantle Pakistan’s Kashmir propaganda on global platforms.
Qureshi also acknowledged that his background may have drawn attention: he is the son of Hashim Quraishi, one of the JKLF hijackers of Air India flight IC-405 in January 1971. The aircraft was flown from Srinagar to Lahore, where Pakistan’s then foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto met the hijackers. While the passengers were released, the plane was later torched. Qureshi has consistently rejected his father’s ideology, calling the hijacking an act of terrorism that occurred before his birth. (IANS)
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