Srinagar: Trouble started for Sanan Khursheed on April 23 when he routinely boarded an auto rickshaw on the outskirts of Mohali in Punjab to go to his college where he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

The 20-year-old student at Rayat-Bahra University in Mohali recalled that his friends tried to persuade him to skip the college as the attack in Pahalgam a day earlier had sparked a wave of anger and protests across the country.

“Our exams are coming up. I thought we were safe in Punjab,” he said.

A group of young male and female students purportedly from Haryana and Himachal Pradesh initially cast unfriendly gazes at Khursheed who was the only Kashmiri in the rickshaw.

Then, they started communal rants about Kashmir which pulled the young student from Srinagar into the verbal duel. “They called me a terrorist and even abused my sister and mother,” Khursheed said.

He added, “When I reached, everyone at the college was looking at me with suspicion. Very few people spoke to me. On the next day, videos of student assaults started doing rounds on social media. One of my friends was also beaten up”.

Khursheed is among a group of 45 male and female students who returned from Punjab to their homes in Kashmir on Monday (April 28), six days after the Pahalgam terror attack sent shockwaves across the country.

Also read: Kashmiri Students Attacked, Threatened Over Pahalgam Attack: J&K Students’ Body

Among the anguished students are those who had to face the music at the hands of miscreants amid a wave of attacks which were reported from Kharar, Dera Bassi, Hoshiarpur, Chandigarh, Jalandhar and some other parts of Punjab.

A youngster at the Universal Group of Institutions (UGI) in Lalru town of Mohali told The Wire that the Kashmiri students were targeted by a group of non-Punjabi students armed with iron rods and knives during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday last week.

Two Kashmiri women students, studying in Punjab and forced to flee post Pahalgam attack, waiting for their families to pick them in Srinagar on Monday. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar 

“One of my friends was manhandled and abused while the college management and the security turned a blind eye to our plight,” he said. 

A Kashmiri girl student at the UGI was allegedly manhandled and dragged by her hair before she managed to run away along with another female Kashmiri student. A video of the distraught girl narrating her ordeal in front of some Punjabi youngsters who had come to her rescue went viral on social media.

Also read: Pahalgam Attack a ‘Lapse’, Says Govt in All-Party Meet as Oppn Questions PM’s Absence, Hate Campaign

A source said that the victim was flown back to Srinagar along with two more girl students by their family after the attack which has been termed by Punjab State Women Commission as “brutal”. The commission has demanded police action but it was not immediately known whether an FIR was registered against those responsible.

Speaking with The Wire, Ummat Shabir, a nursing student at the Rayat-Bahra University, who was staying in a private accommodation in Mohali, said that she didn’t come out of her room after the news of the Pahalgam attack broke on April 22.

Most students of Rayat-Bahra University were confined to their hostels and private accommodations in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack with the university officials plainly refusing to guarantee their security amid growing tensions. 

“A woman living near our accommodation was shouting at the shopkeepers to deny groceries to Kashmiris living in the society. She kept repeating that all Kashmiris are terrorists. What have I got to do with Pahalgam? I am only a student,” said Shabir, a resident of a north Kashmir town.

Hundreds of Kashmiri students are enrolled at various colleges and universities in Punjab and other parts of the country. Some of these students come from poor economic backgrounds who could afford private education with the help of the prime minister’s special scholarship scheme launched for the students of J&K and Ladakh in 2011.

A university student in Mohali walks out of a bus on Monday after a wave of attacks targeting Kashmiri students forced some of them to leave for their homes. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar

According to reports, more than 20,000 students are enrolled in educational institutions across the country under the scheme. Most of the students are continuing their studies, despite the surcharged political atmosphere in the country. 

Also read: How Kashmir’s Land Politics Is Being Dangerously Exploited From All Sides

In the immediate aftermath of the Pahalgam carnage, the state of Punjab wasn’t the only one to witness violence against students and other Kashmiri civilians which had an eerie resemblance to the targeted violence against Kashmiris in the aftermath of the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing that had prompted the Supreme Court to intervene.

At least 17 cases have been reported across India where Kashmiri students have been assaulted over the last six days. The attacks had prompted J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah to send his cabinet colleagues to “coordinate efforts” for ensuring the safety and well-being of J&K residents in various cities of the country.

Following the spate of attacks, the Abdullah government announced last week that an emergency helpline was set up for J&K residents who were facing problems in other parts of the country. However, the students of Rayat-Bahra University alleged that the helpline wasn’t of much help as their phone calls were either not answered or the officers made “hollow assurances”.     

“We didn’t get any help from J&K government. All of us tried to call the helpline but only two to three calls were answered and in those cases too they didn’t help us. Only the members of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar, Punjab police and Sabr grievance cell (a social outfit) took care of us during these tough times,” said Khursheed. 

Amid a gloomy atmosphere, the anguished students, who have become the first casualties of polarisation in the country post Pahalgam attack, reached Srinagar in a bus on Monday which had left Punjab on Saturday. 

While their return to Kashmir has brought a sense of relief to their anxious families, the students are not so hopeful about returning to their classes any time soon, leaving their careers under a cloud.

Abid Lateef, who is pursuing a B.Sc degree, said that some residents of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh who live in Punjab were threatening to throw Kashmiri students out of their rented flats since the Pahalgam attack took place.

He said that the college management was also washing its hands of their safety.

“We were hungry for two days and when I went to buy groceries on Thursday the shopkeeper turned me away, saying that all Kashmiris are terrorists. I am glad to have made it back alive,” he said.

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