India
Kashmiri students allegedly assaulted by Maharashtra students, locals in Chhattisgarh
Kashmiri students undergoing a training programme in Raipur area of Chhattisgarh on Thursday were allegedly physically assaulted by fellow students from Maharashtra and its locals, with atleast four sustaining injuries, according to a report by Greater Kashmir.
The students, 34 in number, were undergoing training under Himayat Project Disha Institute of Management and Technology said that they were first attacked late Wednesday evening at the canteen of the institute, the report quoted.
In the report, a student said that around 8:30 pm, they had gone to the college canteen for dinner when a few students from Maharashtra, the student alleged, attacked a Kashmiri student after he mistakenly took a plate from the table meant for the former. The student said that they had tried to intervene but the Maharashtra students allegedly attacked chased them away to their hostel rooms.
The student later stated that the students from Maharashtra along with the locals later ransacked their belongings at the hostel rooms, the report stated.
Quoting another student in the report, GK stated that the window panes were smashed with iron rods and stones were pelted, resulting in the injuries.
They also alleged the local police didn’t cooperate with them when they informed them about the incident, the report stated.
All of the 34 students undergoing training at the institute come from north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Sonu Singh, Operation head Disha Institute of Management and Technology, was quoted by GK as having said that there was some “minor scuffle” between the students of two states last night and it was sorted out there only.
“College management had deployed security guards for the safety of students and the issue was also sorted out yesterday only,” he said, as per the report.
Recently, it was reported that upto 45 Kashmiri students had been stranded in Jammu following the closure of the Jammu and Kashmir highway for six consecutive days. A video purportedly showing stranded Kashmiris being pelted by stones by students of college in Jammu while staying at the Auqaf building in Jammu.
Previous reports of physical assault and abuse on Kashmiri students have surfaced with similar details. A few months back, Ehtesham Bilal, a student from Sharda University in Greater Noida was physically assaulted by students from Afghanistan and had went missing a short while later. Later, through social media, it was purportedly reported that he had joined the Islamic State of Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK). Police released a statement a while later, saying that ‘a person had been rehabilitated back to the mainstream with the help of family’.
Last year, two Kashmiri students were allegedly ‘picked up‘ by Indian security agencies outside their rented apartment in Chhattisgarh. Three Kashmiri students were also suspended by Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) for offering absentia prayers for scholar-turned-militant Mannan Wani who was killed last year. The suspension was later revoked following uproar.
