Humra Quraishi
NEWS reports of Kashmiri students being attacked and humiliated in our towns and cities are on the rise. In fact, for the last several years Kashmiris have been recounting the treatment meted out to them whenever they venture out of the Valley. Communally slanted comments are thrown at them and some are even called “terrorists”. They do not get rooms at hotels and hostels because people are wary of them. They have to first report to the nearest police station before approaching guesthouses for accommodation. Are Kashmiri students foreigners or have they come from an enemy country that they are made to report to police stations? Why do we look at Kashmiris with suspicion? Why are the cops trained and asked to keep a close watch on Kashmiris?
This is not a sudden development. Way back in 2002, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) brought out a booklet with details of the ill- treatment meted out to the Kashmiris outside the Valley. This trend has worsened. In mid-July this year, two students (one of them a Kashmiri and one who “looked”a Kashmiri) were beaten by political goons in Bhopal and Hyderabad. Earlier this summer, it was painful to see the plight of four young Kashmiri students studying in Rajasthan’s Mewar/Chittorgarh region. They were made to stand as though they had committed a heinous crime. All they had done was to buy 300 gm mutton from the local market. This was enough to trigger “beef” rumours, leading to their arrest and public humiliation. Kashmiri students and professionals recount how the local police keeps a watch on them to see where they eat, live or travel.
Professor Nasir Mirza of the Media Education Research Centre (MERC) of the Kashmir University had said, way back in 2004, “Our local newspapers carry stories of Kashmiris travelling by train, getting harassed in Punjab and being forced to part with money to get safe passage. Recently, a group of media students at the Mass Communication Research Centre of the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, were asked to make a documentary on any theme of their choice. They made a documentary titled Kaash, focusing on a young Kashmiri who decides to go to New Delhi after hearing a former Prime Minister’s announcement that there were immense opportunities for the Kashmiri youth and they should come forward and avail them. This documentary focuses on the sheer harassment and humiliation this young man goes through after he leaves the Valley. He does not even get a room on rent.” It’s not that politicians have not been aware of the hardships that the Kashmiris face outside. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Omar Abdullah, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti — had all held meetings with their political counterparts. Quite obviously, there was little impact. In the summer of 2006, it was reported in almost all dailies that Ghulam Nabi Azad had asked “the chief ministers of 11 states not to harass or take any action against traders and students of Jammu and Kashmir, without consulting the Director General of Police and the Additional Director General Police (CID), to ensure that innocent persons are not harassed on the pretext of questioning in event of any terrorist act in their respective states.” In spite of Azad’s above-mentioned appeals, there were disturbing news reports from Gujarat. One such news report: “Ahmedabad: The crime branches of the Ahmedabad and Mumbai police are exchanging detainees, who are later used as targets for encounters... Following the encounter with four men, believed to be Kashmiri militants in Vatva in Ahmedabad, highly placed sources say they were detainees who had been with the city police for the last four months.”
Whilst interviewing the late Mufti Mohammad Sayed on two separate occasions (when he was the Union Home Minister and then when he was the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir), I had asked him to comment on the treatment meted out to Kashmiris once they ventured out of the Valley. He had given a detailed reply: “I'm aware of the kind of harassment and humiliation some Kashmiris are facing outside the state… I have openly talked at meetings about the dangers of looking at all Indian Muslims with suspicion … don't link all Indian Muslims with the likes of Dawood Ibrahims. I have cited instance after instance of the loyalty of the Indian Muslim and yet I fear some polarisation is indeed taking place.”
There is no platform or forums through which harassed Kashmiris can even lodge a complaint. There are no helpline numbers. It is not just lack of transparency and accountability but an abundance of communal slants that compound the situation.
The writer, a freelance journalist, is the author of “Kashmir: The Untold Story”.
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