News Analysis |
After a 20-year-old Kashmiri, Adil Ahmed Dar smashed his explosives-laden van into a convoy carrying Indian para-military troops, which resulted in the death of 44 CRPF soldiers as of now, the lives of Kashmiris living in all parts of India has come under threat. In the city of Dehradun, where Indian Military Academy is also located, Hindu vigilantes of Bajrang Dal are looking for Kashmiri students to soothe their rage. There are nearly 2000 Kashmiri students living in Dehradun alone who have no option but to lock themselves up, as they fear for their lives.
Vikas Verma, the convener of the Bajrang Dal in Dehradun, confirmed that students from Kashmir have been subjected to violence. “Yes, they are our targets,” he said. “They have been celebrating the Pulwama attacks. They have been chanting pro-Pakistan slogans. We feed them, we keep them in our homes and this is how they pay us back. We will teach them a lesson.”
A day after the incident, 4 Kashmiri girl students were suspended over alleged posts regarding the Pulwama attack from Rajasthan’s National Institute of Medical Sciences.
The trapped students desperately want to leave for their homes, but the situation is too dangerous to go outside. The tickets price has been increased multiple folds as well as the curfew in the Jammu region after the arsonists spread havoc across the city has made it impossible to reach Kashmir via roads. In Jammu, extremist Hindus have taken to roads looking for Muslims to punish for the Pulwama attack. Despite the city being under the curfew, these extremists are still able to move freely around and there have been multiple incidents of violence reported from the city.
A day after the incident, 4 Kashmiri girl students were suspended over alleged posts regarding the Pulwama attack from Rajasthan’s National Institute of Medical Sciences. Reports identified the students as Talveen Manzoor, Iqra, Zohra Nazir and Uzma Nazir, who were suspended allegedly posted celebratory messages as WhatsApp status over the killings of CRPF personnel in the attack.
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An order issued by NIMS registrar said that the students have posted “an anti-national message” on WhatsApp for celebrating slain CRPF personnel killed in Pulwama attack. “NIMS University Rajasthan will not tolerate and strictly condemns such activities. Since the above act of theirs is grave and serious in nature, these students are hereby suspended with immediate effect from college and hostel,” reads the order.
Incidents like these are only going to leave further animosity in the minds of Kashmiris against the Indian which may further lead to incidents like Pulwama. Adil Ahmed Dar himself was radicalized after he was humiliated by the Indian Occupation forces after returning from school back when he was 16.
With hundreds of thousands of troops in Jammu and Kashmir, it is already the most militarized zone of the world and the Indian government is willing to risk the lives of its own soldiers rather giving the Kashmiris what they want.
Instead of identifying the root cause of the problem as for why young Kashmiris are preferring to blow themselves up rather live under occupation, India is trying to divert the attention of masses toward foreign intervention from Pakistan. Even the Indian leaning politicians of the Jammu and Kashmir like the ex-chief minister Farooq Abdullah has come up to speak that the struggle for freedom is indigenous and India should not simply blame Pakistan for it.
Incidents like Pulwama can only be avoided if India goes on to put sincere effort in solving the long pending issue of Kashmir. It is not a geographical or strategic matter, it is a humanitarian crisis where indigenous people of Kashmir by large have been kept away from their right of self-determination.
Read more: Pulwama attack: India continues hostility towards Pakistan
With hundreds of thousands of troops in Jammu and Kashmir, it is already the most militarized zone of the world and the Indian government is willing to risk the lives of its own soldiers rather giving the Kashmiris what they want. Instead of punishing innocent Kashmiris, Indian population should ask themselves and their government as to why these people despise India so much.