NEW DELHI – Students from Indian-administered Kashmir have reported harassment and intimidation in India after a gruesome attack in the Himalayan region killed more than two dozen Indian men, a student association said on April 24.
Gunmen killed 26 men – all Indian except one Nepali – in the tourist hotpot of Pahalgam on April 22, the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority territory since 2000.
Survivors said the gunmen targeted men, sparing those who could give the Islamic declaration of faith, Indian media reported.
The killings have shocked the world’s most populous country and enraged Hindu nationalist groups.
Kashmiri students in states including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh were allegedly asked to leave their rented apartments or university hostels on April 23, Jammu and Kashmir Students Association convenor Nasir Khuehami said.
At a university in Himachal Pradesh, students were harassed and physically attacked after hostel doors were broken, Mr Khuehami said.
The students were allegedly called “terrorists”, he added.
“This is not just a security issue”, he said. “It is a deliberate and targeted campaign of hate and vilification against students from a particular region and identity”.
In Uttarakhand’s capital city Dehradun, around 20 students fled to the airport on April 23 following warnings from Hindu Raksha Dal, a fringe right-wing group.
The students said that the group threatened Kashmiri Muslim students with dire consequences if they did not leave town immediately.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he was in touch with state governments where students reported feeling unsafe, asking them to “take extra care”.
Kashmir’s former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti also appealed to India’s Interior Minister Amit Shah to “intervene in the wake of certain elements openly threatening” traders and students.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the high-altitude territory in full, but governing separate portions of it.
Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt in Kashmir for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained in the operation.
On April 23, India accused Islamabad of supporting “cross-border terrorism” and downgraded ties with its neighbour with a raft of diplomatic measures.
Pakistan has denied any role in the Pahalgam attack. AFP
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