Uproar in Jammu and Kashmir assembly over assault on students in Haryana

While Haryana police have arrested three accused in connection with an attack on two Kashmiri students in Mahendragarh town on Friday, several opposition legislators of National Conference and Congress on Saturday staged a walk out from Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly to protest against the “non-seriousness” of Jammu Kashmir’s Government to stop attacks on Kashmiri students studying outside the state.

Two Kashmiri youth, Aftab Ahmed and Amzad Ali, students of the Central University of Haryana near Mahendergarh town, around 125 km from Delhi, have been discharged from hospital. Both of them claimed that they were assaulted without any provocation.

Aftab Ahmed, an MSc Geography student told media that a bunch of people attacked him and his friends when they were returning after their Friday prayers. “We don’t know why they hit us, nor could we identify the people involved. The moment we stopped our bikes, these people charged at us and started beating us with helmets and bricks,” Aftab, who has sustained injuries on his face, was quoted as saying.

Maintaining that this was not the first time that Kashmiri students were targeted, Aftab apprehended that the attackers might have been chasing them: “We didn’t only go to the mosque. We had other work as well and were supposed to visit many places to finish our chores. On our return from the mosque, the moment we stopped at a place, a group of people attacked us.” According to him, there are as many as 86 Kashmiri students are currently studying in Haryana Central University.

The incident triggered uproar in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly over safety concerns for Kashmiri students outside the state. National Conference MLA Altaf Kaloo told the House that students studying in Haryana University were living in fear after the incident: “Students studying at Central University of Haryana fear for their life. They were targeted for being residents of Jammu and Kashmir,” Kaloo told the House, stressing that they were planning to quit studies and return home.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had earlier urged the Haryana government to take stringent action against the perpetrators and demanded a probe into the case.

Reacting sharply to the attack, former National Conference chief minister of the state Omar Abdullah said that such incidents are bound to drive young Kashmiri youth away from the national mainstream. “This hyper-nationalism built around the propaganda that all Kashmiris are terrorists & stone pelters will drive young Kashmiris further away from the national mainstream," he said in a series of tweets.