Ministry of Home Affairs issued an advisory on Friday, 8 March, to the States and Union Territories, asking them to reinforce the existing arrangements to ensure safety and security of persons belonging to Jammu and Kashmir residing in their respective jurisdictions.
Referring to its earlier Advisory issued on 16 February in view of some students and residents of J&K experiencing intimidation and harassment, MHA urged the states’ and Union territories’ police authorities to take strict action against the offenders as per law.
The advisory from the government comes after two Kashmiri dry fruit sellers were assaulted in broad daylight in Lucknow by several saffron-clad men on Wednesday.
A group of men was arrested in connection with the case after a video of them thrashing the vendors went viral on social media. Several such incidents have been reported across the country after the terror attack in J&K’s Pulwama on 14 February, that left 40 CRPF jawans dead.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday strongly condemned the attack on the vendors.
Addressing a gathering in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, PM Modi asked state governments to take strict action if there is any attack on Kashmiris, calling those who targeted them recently in Lucknow “crazed people”.
“It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country,” Modi said, while referring to the recent assault on some Kashmiri vendors in Lucknow.
He said the UP government immediately acted against some “crazed people” who had targeted “our Kashmiri brothers”.
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