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Kashmiri Muslims evicted, threatened after deadly attack on Indian forces

Ersin Çelik
13:23 - 17/02/2019 Sunday
Update: 13:25 - 17/02/2019 Sunday
REUTERS
Kashmiri Muslims pray
Kashmiri Muslims pray

"TRAITOR"

Fear has engulfed Kashmiri students in Haryana's Ambala district after a video on social media showed a village headman asking people to evict Kashmiri students in the area.

"In case it is not done, the person in whose residence such students are living will be considered as a traitor," the man says in the video, whose authenticity Reuters has not been able to independently verify.

Police said they were investigating the matter.

Since the video surfaced on social media on Saturday, at least half a dozen Kashmiri students have been shifted to the hostel of a university campus in Ambala.

A Facebook user named Anshul Saxena, meanwhile, has claimed credit for getting people fired or suspended for posts he calls "anti-national".

Saxena uploaded a screengrab of a suspension letter handed out to a Kashmiri employee of a pharmaceutical company who had allegedly written in favour of the attack.

The attack on India's paramilitary police follows the deadliest year in Kashmir for security personnel since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power nearly five years ago.

Government data shows 91 officers lost their lives in Kashmir last year, about 14 percent more than 2017. Thousands of people, including militants and civilians, have died since the insurgency began in late 1980s.

Political leaders from Kashmir appealed to the government to ensure security of Kashmiris across India, while many people on Twitter said their homes were open to Kashmiris seeking shelter.

"Understand the pain and anguish," Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of J&K, said in a tweet. "But we must not allow such mischievous elements to use this as an excuse to persecute/harass people from J&K. Why should they suffer for somebody else's action?"

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5 years ago