She sinks in her beige sofa with green motifs and leans on the olive green cushions. In a tastefully done house decorated with Arab motifs and traditional jharokhas, she sits amid artefacts collected from different parts of the world by her family. Attired in casual blue denims and a striped shirt, she juggles between two phones and her laptop, checking for communication from her office, her lawyers and journalists’ bodies. In Navi Mumbai, the satellite city of Mumbai, Rana Ayyub, a 41-year old journalist working with The Washington Post, is not a new face for the police.
Being a journalist for over two decades, she has done investigative reporting on Gujarat riots, written on Manipur riots, India’s Muslims, Hindu nationalism, and has received international recognition for her book Gujarat Files. She has faced online harassment for years and has been doxed by ‘Hindu nationalist handles’. In 2022, Ms. Ayyub was probed by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged money laundering case. She was under the scrutiny of the Income Tax department as well. By her own account, several cases have been filed against her in different parts of the country ‘by the right-wing trolls’.
Over the last few years, she has filed several complaints with the police citing harassment. Though the police filed five first information reports (FIRs), there was no further action on them. The only time the police took proactive steps was after the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, she says. The police had then offered her a licence for a revolver.
Instagram post
“Journalism itself has become a threat today. I do not know what has triggered this [latest] threat. The only thing that preceded this threat, that I can think of, is my post on Instagram [November 2, 2025] where I had written about the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom,” she said. Her post, with her childhood photo and the reference to the 1992 riots, stated, “Overnight, my family and I became Muslims – a trauma that has lived with me, shaped my nightmares, my personal and professional life. Ironic that I am sharing this on the anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. Injustice begets injustice. If 1984 had been given justice, the perpetrators of 1992 – who destroyed my childhood, would not be sitting in the highest echelons of power,” she had said in her post.
The same day, on November 2, Ms. Ayyub received persistent threats on her WhatsApp number from a Canadian number, threatening to kill her and her father, if she did not publish an op-ed in The Washington Post glorifying the assassins of Indira Gandhi. The caller, who had the display picture of Lawrence Bishnoi, and whose name was listed as Harry Shooter, posted her address, knew the location of her father who was travelling outdoors, and made four video calls to her.
“I have always called out the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom and have openly stated several times that had the Congress punished the culprits then, 1992 wouldn’t have happened. Being against the BJP’s anti-Muslim stance does not mean I am pro-Congress, and I won’t call out what they did wrong. A journalist’s job is not to take sides. It is to tell the truth,” she said. “I was saved by a Sikh family during the anti-Muslim pogrom in Mumbai. And I have always remained grateful to them,” she added.
While she has taken an open public stance against the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, much to the chagrin of the Congress leadership, she said, she now fails to understand why she should be a subject of surveillance and threat by the Khalistanis. “I don’t even know if these are the Khalistanis or any deep state actors. I really want to know who is doing this to me. I have been requesting the police to register an FIR, but they haven’t done it so far,” she said.
“I panicked as the person [who called on November 2] knew the exact location of my father and the fact that he was travelling. I reached out to Navi Mumbai police. When I persisted on filing an FIR, an official said, ‘Don’t think too much. A Khalistani in Uttar Pradesh must have seen your father.’ I didn’t know what to say. I was dumbstruck. This does not make sense. I don’t even know if the person is from Lawrence Bishnoi gang, or a front for any state actor, or anyone else. At other times, I would have ignored it. But the fact that this person knew my exact address, the location of my family members, made me fear that there was surveillance involved. I am scared for myself, for the safety of my family,” she said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed concern for her safety, seeking police protection for her. “But forget giving me police security, they haven’t even registered an FIR as yet,” she says, showing the copies of the complaints she has written. The police have registered a non-cognisable offence [which the police cannot investigate without court nod] , as per local reports. She does not know it. Apart from an acknowledgement on her statement, she does not have any other document.
Narrating how she was followed and video recorded during her reporting in Manipur last year, how she was doxed (to publicly expose someone’s private identifying information online without their consent, often to shame, intimidate, or harm them) by a pro-Hindutva handle which led to mental harassment due to unending calls and intimidation, she said the incidents haven’t stopped. Police complaints have not helped either. “The police do not act against the main culprits,” she said.
This time, she does not want to take it lightly. “I feel, my entire family is vulnerable. May it be my young nephew or my parents. I got panic attacks the day I received these video calls. I did not engage and I blocked the number thereafter. But someone needs to find out who this person is. I need to know who is doing this to me,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Navi Mumbai Police said that they were doing forensic investigation on the basis of an NC (non-cognisable offence) registered in the matter. “We have taken permission to investigate the NC,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Pankaj Dahane said. Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Milind Bharambe said forensic investigation was going on in the matter as it was a VoIP call with an international number. ”But if it is a Canada number, there will be challenges,” he said.
Published – November 08, 2025 10:59 pm IST
