Kashmiri students threatened in India after attack

NEW DELHI: Students from Kashmir have reported harassment and intimidation in India after a gruesome attack in the Himalayan region killed more than two dozen Indian men, a student association said Thursday.

Gunmen killed 26 men — all Indian except one Nepali — in the tourist hotpot of Pahalgam on Tuesday, the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority territory since 2000.

The killings have shocked the world’s most populous country and enraged Hindu nationalist groups.

Kashmiri students in states including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh were asked to leave their rented apartments or university hostels on Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir Students Association convenor Nasir Khuehami said.

At a university in Himachal Pradesh, students were harassed and physically attacked after hostel doors were broken, Khuehami said.

The students were allegedly called “terrorists”, he added.

“This is not just a security issue”, he said. “It is a deliberate and targeted campaign of hate and vilification against students from a particular region and identity”.

In Uttarakhand’s capital city Dehradun, around 20 students fled to the airport on Wednesday following warnings from Hindu Raksha Dal, a fringe right-wing group.

The students said that the group threatened Kashmiri Muslim students with dire consequences if they did not leave town at the earliest.

An insurgency ongoing in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt in Kashmir for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained in the operation.

On Wednesday, India accused Islamabad of supporting attack and downgraded ties with its neighbour with a raft of diplomatic measures.

Pakistan has denied any role in the Pahalgam attack.