'Leave by 10 am': Hindutva Groups Target Kashmiri Students Post Pahalgam Attack

Kashmiri students face threats from right-wing groups following Pahalgam terrorist attack.

(Illustration: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

(*Some names have been changed to protect identity.)

"Universities are supposed to be safe spaces. If we're not safe on campus, then where do we go?" asked X*, a Kashmiri Muslim student at a university in Uttarakhand.

X* and his Kashmiri batchmates haven't slept for a minute since they heard about the 22 April terrorist attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam which claimed at least 26 lives. "It was ghastly act of terrorism. But why are we being punished for it? What is our fault?" X added, his voice quivering over the phone.

The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Soon after, Hindu Raksha Dal, a right-wing Hindutva group in Uttarakhand, issued an open threat to Kashmiri Muslims, asking them to leave the state by 10 pm on Wednesday, vowing to ‘pick them up one by one.’

The Quint spoke to Kashmiri Muslim students, who shared the nature of the threats they were receiving and their growing anxiety about returning home.

'From Punjab to Kanyakumari...': Students' Body Receiving Distress Calls

At 8.30 pm on Wednesday, Nasir Khuehami, National Convenor of the Jammu and Kashmir Students Association, posted on on X that the student body had received multiple distress calls from Kashmiri students and youth in Prayagraj.

Khuehami documented several incidents of assault on Kashmiri students across states such as Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

In a statement, the student association said they were now in touch with the office of Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to assist distressed students.

'How Do We Return Home?'

At a university hostel in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj, a Kashmiri student, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Quint that he and several other students from the valley were desperate to return home. "We want to go back. But how? Is it even safe for us to step outside the hostel? Is it even safe to stay inside?" he asked.

Meanwhile, CM Omar Abdullah, in a post on X, said that his government was in touch with states where these reports are originating from. "I am in touch with my counterpart Chief Ministers in these states and have requested they take extra care," he wrote.