"I've never felt so unsure of myself": Kashmiris face retaliation for unprecedented attack

NEW DELHI – A few hours after a suicide bomber hit an Indian security convoy in Kashmir last week, the threats began.

In the city of Dehradun, in northern India, students shared social media posts calling for the expulsion of Kashmiri clbadmates from their universities. Groups marched through the streets shouting that the Kashmiris were traitors and should be shot. Owners renting rooms to Kashmiri students have been threatened.

"I have never felt so bad in my life," said Aqib Rashid, 22, a physiotherapy student. Joining hundreds of other students from Kashmir, he left Dehradun to travel to Chandigarh, a four-hour drive from the state of Punjab.

In the aftermath of Thursday's attack, the deadliest of three decades of insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the atmosphere in India is tense and angry. In search of scapegoats, some have attacked students and traders from Kashmir in other parts of India.

On Tuesday, the governor of a small state in northeastern India expressed support Total boycott of Kashmir in response to the February 14 attack, which killed 40 members of the paramilitary police. The badault was perpetrated by a local teenager who had joined Jaish-e-Muhammad, a militant group based in Pakistan.

India blames Pakistan – its neighbor and rival – for the attack, but Pakistan rejects such claims. India will hold national elections this spring and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised that "every tear shed" by the families of the victims of the aggression would be avenged.

With nationalist sentiment on the rise, publications on social networks interpreted as criticism of Indian security forces – or as possible support for the attack – were unwelcome. Several students from the state of Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, face criminal charges for publishing articles on social networks criticizing the Indian military. A professor from the state of Assam, in the northeastern part of the country, was reportedly suspended for her Facebook posts during the attack.

Khawaja Itrat, 21, runs the Jammu and Kashmir student organization in Chandigarh, capital of Punjab. In the hours following last week's attack, he began to receive reports of unrest elsewhere in India, including in Dehradun: people gathered in the streets shouting anti-Kashmiri slogans or saying to the owners that they had 24 hours to send Kashmiri students away.

The crowd was not just about students. Aabid Majeed Kuchay, a Kashmiri who is dean of academic affairs at a management institute in Dehradun, said a group of 500 angry people had gone to his college two days in a row. They demanded that Kashmiri students no longer be allowed and that Kuchay be suspended. To prevent the violence, he asked the administration to yield to their request. With the help of college and local police, Kuchay escaped into the city of Jammu.

Meanwhile, The student organization of Itrat collaborated with local authorities to evacuate students from Kashmir, many of whom were hiding in their apartments. Itrat said his group had arranged for more than 500 students to leave Dehradun.

In Chandigarh and the nearby town of Mohali, there was also unexpected kindness. A local gurudwara – a Sikh temple – said that he also wanted to help. After receiving a student request for shelter, "we immediately agreed," said Sant Singh, a committee member who oversees the Gurudwara Singh Shaheedan Shrine. "Everyone is welcome, regardless of religion."

On February 15, 2019, Indian students in Ahmedabad paid tribute to paramilitary policemen killed by a suicide bombing in Kashmir. (Sam Panthaky / AFP / Getty Images)

A Sikh social service organization offered help for the food and transportation of students. "We wanted to be there for them as a community, as human beings first and foremost," said Nazia Kamboj, education coordinator for Khalsa Aid. "They should not feel alienated on their own land and among their own people."

On Monday, more than 50 students were staying in the gurudwara outdoor complex in rooms normally reserved for visitors. Mattresses and blankets were placed on the floor and suitcases were piled on the side. The next important task: find taxis and buses to allow students to start their journey back to Kashmir.

But it was unlikely that students would forget their ordeal and we still did not know if they would go back to their colleges.

"I would prefer to finish my studies and go back if the situation improves, but my parents are against it," said Junaid, a 21-year-old civil engineering student who asked to be identified by a name for herself. security reasons. He was the first person in his family to study outside Kashmir, he said. "Now, I think I'll be the last."

Niha Masih and Farheen Fatima contributed to this report.

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