Government officials say they are assessing the threat by the terror outfit. (Representational)
The terror group 'The Resistance Front' has issued threats to several members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Jammu and Kashmir. The group is a proxy of the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba and was declared a banned organisation by the government in January.
The Kashmir terror group has released a list of 30 RSS leaders on its target. The threat comes just three days after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat reiterated his idea for a "Akhand Bharat"
The government say that they are assessing the threat.
"TRF has threatened largely Muslim leaders who are supposedly associated with RSS so we are also examining the genuineness of the threat," a senior functionary of government of India told NDTV while confirming that a list of 30 RSS members who are in-charge of areas in South and North Kashmir and Jammu region has been released by the terror outfit on its website.
"It's just weaponisation of social media and nothing else. Organisations like TRF just want to create false propaganda," the official said.
The list does not include any big name. An official on the ground said that such terror outfits usually threat those who they perceive are close to the Jammu and Kashmir government.
"Terror outfits like TRF mostly threaten those who they perceive to be close to the JK administration. So, we are processing this aspect to the threat too," the official said.
The threat letters come at a time when the state administration has been trying to prove that the situation in Kashmir has improved.
An all-party delegation, on invitation of National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, is slated to visit Kashmir in coming weeks near Eid to asses the ground situation. Leaders of as many as 13 opposition parties had met in Delhi and submitted a memorandum to Election Commission to start process of election in Jammu and Kashmir as delimitation is over in the Union Territory.
On April 1, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat claimed that even after over seven decades of independence, the people of Pakistan are dissatisfied and now think that the partition of India was a mistake.
"A divided Bharat", he added, was a "nightmare even though Akhand Bharat was real."
Mr Bhagwat made these comments at a celebration honouring the revolutionary and freedom fighter Hemu Kalani's 100th birthday. Members of the country's Sindhi population from other regions also attended the occasion.