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Within a day of 12 Kashmiri students being thrashed in Dehradun by members of Hindu fringe groups, 20 female students of a college were holed up for allegedly shouting “Pakistan zindabaad”. It was alleged that they were celebrating the Pulwama attacks, but there’s no proof, except Rahul Pundir, a realtive of MLA Sehdev Singh Pundir, who was a part of the mob, telling TOI that the girls had raised ‘bharat k tukde hongey’ slogans.
The students said there’s a large, violent mob, gathered around outside their hostel. They were afraid of being hurt if they step out.
However, what is amply clear is that the air is charged with anti-Kashmiri sentiments and Hindu hardliners are up in arms against the minority community.
Over the weekend, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad members called on all Kashmiri students residing in Dehradun to leave “within 24 hours” after branding them “traitors”.
The environment has been tense, morose and filled with hatred since the Pulwama attack on CRPF men and subsequent terror attacks claimed the lives of three security force personnel hailing from the hill station. Moreover, two students were suspended by their respective colleges for posting insensitive content with inherent pro-Pakistan rhetoric on their social media profiles.
Hundreds of Kashmiri students studying in Dehradun have since stayed behind closed doors; there are around 1,500 to 2,000 Kashmiri students in Dehradun. While many have been assaulted, others have been victims of verbal abuse, and the rest have been forced out of their rented apartments. Though a lot of them have already fled to their hometowns, not everyone has. Explaining why, a student told The Wire: “Not everyone can leave. The tickets are very expensive. The route will not be safe either for Kashmiris.”
What’s worse is, the bouts of violence are not just restricted to Dehradun. In other parts of North India, such as Ambala in Haryana and Jaipur in Rajasthan, Kashmiris have allegedly been threatened and attacked, some even by fellow students.
Vikas Verma, convenor of Bajrang Dal in Dehradun, said: “Yes, they are our targets. They have been celebrating the Pulwama attacks and chanting pro-Pakistan slogans. We feed them, we keep them in our homes and this is how they pay us back. We will teach them a lesson.”
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