SRINAGAR – Junaid Ayub Rather cowered alongside 30 other students in asmall room for two nights while mobs chanted for their blood outside,before finally escaping an angry backlash over a suicide bombing in Kashmir.
Similar scenes have played out across the nation as Kashmiris living awayfrom home flee violent reprisals following the latest attack in the restiveHimalayan region, which killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers.
Rather said angry crowds gathered outside hostels and apartments rented byKashmiri students in Dehradun, north of New Delhi, shouting for the”traitors” and “terrorists” inside to be shot.
“It took us four days to reach home in Kashmir with some help from policeand a Muslim businessman,” Rather, who had lived in the northern city fortwo years, told AFP after reaching his home south of Srinagar.
“Thirty of us slept in one room for two nights before we could mobilisehelp to flee.”
The businessman let them take refuge in his home until buses could beorganised to get them to safety.
Around 11,000 Kashmiri students enrol at Indian universities outside theirhome state each year.
Many are now clamouring to return home to a region battle-scarred by 30years of brutal armed insurgency, fearing violent attacks if they stay.
Video footage of Kashmiris being beaten and taunted in Indian cities hasbeen widely shared on social media, while rightwing Hindu groups andpundits on TV news channels have encouraged reprisals.
A professor from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University this week publiclycalled for the execution of 40 Kashmiris to avenge the suicide bombing,while two other colleges announced they would no longer accept studentsfrom the territory.
– Distress calls –
More than 500 students, along with 100 businessmen, have already arrivedback in Kashmir to flee a “climate of fear and intimidation across India”,said Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation chief Mohammad Yasin Khan.
More were on their way, he told AFP.
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“We are continuously receiving distress calls from all kinds of peopleasking for help,” Khan said.
Some Kashmiri students have also been suspended by Indian universities forallegedly posting insensitive comments on social media about the suicideattack, while others have been arrested on sedition charges.
India’s interior ministry has ordered state governments to protect Kashmiristudents — but several political leaders have also stoked aggressiveanti-Kashmir sentiment since the bombing.
“Don’t visit Kashmir… Boycott everything Kashmiri,” Meghalaya stategovernor Tathagata Roy wrote on Twitter.
More than 500,000 Indian troops are stationed in Kashmir, a territoryadministered by New Delhi but also claimed by neighbouring Pakistan.
The two countries have battled three wars for control of the region, whilean assortment of local insurgent groups have fought for a merger withPakistan or outright independence.
Last week’s suicide attack was claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)militant group, based in Pakistan.
India has long accused Islamabad of giving official backing to Kashmirirebel groups.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who faces an election in the coming monthsand is under pressure to take a tough stand on militants, has promisedthose responsible for the bombing “will pay a heavy price”.
His Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan promised retaliation against anyIndian attack on his country’s soil. – APP/AFP