Following the 49 CRPF men were killed by a suicide bomber in Pulwama area of South Kashmir, Vikas Verma, a Bajrang Dal leader in Uttarakhand said that India that Kashmiri students had to leave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state.
Verma, who is the right-wing organisation’s convener for Dehradun, Vikas Nagar and Purola, said that the Kashmiri students could return to Uttarakhand only after Kashmiris stopped throwing stones on the security personnel stationed in Kashmir, and the Indian flag was raised in every house in Kashmir Huffington Post reported.
Verma also said that students could return to Uttarakhand after Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir State, was abrogated, and Indians could live, work and buy property in Kashmir.
“Kashmiri students cannot come to Uttarakhand until the stone pelting in Kashmir stops. Kashmiri students cannot come here until there is an Indian flag raised in every house in Kashmir,” he said.
The deadly attack on Indian soldiers stationed in Pulwama on 14 February has triggered a backlash against Kashmiri students in different cities of the country, but largely in BJP-ruled Haryana and Uttarakhand.
Previously locals, led by a village sarpanch, demanded that Kashmiri students studying in the locality of Mullana in Ambala, Haryana, leave within 24 hours.
Kashmiri students have been forced to leave hostels or rented rooms in Haryana and Uttarakhand. Almost a dozen have been either suspended or expelled from college for expressing “offensive” views on the Pulwama attack. At least five students — one in Bengaluru and four in Rajasthan — have been booked for sedition under the Indian Penal Code by the local police.
While, on the one hand, Verma says the Bajrang Dal is targeting Kashmiris who allegedly raised “pro Pakistan” slogans and lauded the 19-year-old suicide bomber, Adil Ahmed Dar, on social media.
On the other, the 41-year-old activist, who has studied till class 12 and has worked with the Bajrang Dal for the past five years, accused “all” Kashmiri students in Uttarakhand of engaging in some kind of “anti-India” activities.
“Our campaign against them will continue,” he said.
