3 Kashmiri youth, a journalist attacked in India in continued backlash after Pulwama bombing

Three Kashmiri youth in New Delhi and a journalist in Pune have been attacked in the last 36 hours in continued violent backlash against Kashmiris in the aftermath of the Pulwama suicide blast, Indian and Kashmiri media reported.

According to the Kashmir Media Service (KMS) on Friday, three Kashmiri youth were assaulted in the Nangloi area of New Delhi.

In a separate incident, a 24-year-old Kashmiri journalist, Jibran Nazir, was beaten up in Pune on Thursday night.

As per Nazir, who works with a newspaper in Pune, the assailants told him that they would send him back to Kashmir.

Meanwhile, authorities have booked an “illegally detained youth” under the Public Safety Act (PSA) — that allows detention for up to six months without trial — in Pulwama district, KMS reported.

A resident of the Chatpora area in the district, Muzamil Ganai, was shifted to Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu after he was booked under the PSA.

Ganai had been arrested by police last week on charges of pelting stones at the Indian forces personnel. His family members, however, refuted the police claims that he was involved in the stone pelting.

On Friday, India’s Supreme Court ordered bolstered protection for Kashmiris who were facing discrimination and violent backlash after the Pulwama attacks.

The top court told state governments and police chiefs to ensure there are no “attacks, threats or social boycott” over the February 14 bombing in occupied Kashmir — the worst in the territory in 30 years — in which 40 Indian soldiers were killed.

More than 700 Kashmiri students, workers and traders have returned to occupied Kashmir from the rest of India to escape reprisals for the attack, which has also ratcheted up regional tensions after India has alleged that those who planned the attacks had links with the Pakistani state — a charge that Islamabad has vigorously denied.