Srinagar, March 30, 2013: Dozens of Kashmiri students were thrashed in Indian southern city Bangalore on Saturday. Blaming Bangalore police, the Kashmiri students said that they were detained by the police when they approched them to register a complaint in a police station.
Kashmiri students studying in Gousia College of Engineering, Bangalore in India said that scores of Indian students from Bihar beat them up without any provocation. “They are always accusing and abusing us terming us as militants,” a student Shahryar said on phone from Bangalore to media men in Srinagar adding that they are scared of their lives.
The fresh reports about alleged harassment of Kashmiri youth studying in Ghousia College of Engineering Ramanagran Karnataka in India has created fear and psychosis among the parents here, who are expressing apprehensions over the safety and security of their children.
Parents of the students studying in Ghousia College of Engineering Ramanagran Karnataka staged a massive demonstrations at Srinagar today said the Bihari student numbering 115, stormed hostel rooms of Kashmiri students (30 in number) and severely beat them. Kashmiris somehow fled for their lives. Many Kashmiri students suffered terrible wounds. But none shielded them. They have said that their sons have become victims of deep-rooted conspiracy.
“An FIR was lodged but to no avail. Police only made us to wait inside the police station for hours and withdrew the FIR we had launched and did not take any action against the erring Jharkhand and Bihari students,” another Kashmiri student said on anonymity.
“On Thursday students from Bihar and Jharkhand resorted to ragging. We did not join them and asked our Kashmiri freshers’ to evade the harassing process,” a Kashmiri student wishing not to be named, told media men over phone.
“It irked Bihari and Jharkhand students, who frisked the hostel rooms and thrashed Kashmiri students to pulp and injured four of them late in the night,” he said.
Valley students said that on Friday morning they went to a local police station and complained against the harassment.
“An FIR was lodged but to no avail. Police only made us to wait inside the police station for hours and withdrew the FIR we had launched and did not take any action against the erring Jharkhand and Bihari students,” another Kashmiri student said on anonymity.
Kashmiri students said that they were attacked by iron rods and belts.
“We also complained about the harassment to the college management which also has failed to take action against the involved students of Bihar and Jharkhand,” he said.
A final year student of B Tech from south Kashmir said the group of undergraduates from Bihar was trying to rag juniors from Kashmir. “The B Tech first year students from the Valley were walking in the corridor when a group tried to rag them.
The Kashmiri students tried to avoid them them but they abused them. However, students who are new in the college apologized after the college authorities intervened,” the student said.
He said police and college authorities did not cooperate with them rather blamed us for misbehaving with others.“It is completely frustrating here the way college authorities are behaving with us. We are living under fear psychosis. We fear for our lives,” the student said.
He said 24 Kashmiri students study at the institution. “We are being continuously attacked. We don’t feel secure here,” the student added.
Parents, whose children study in Indian states, have expressed apprehensions over the security of their wards and incident at Bangalore has unnerved them.
“Our sons have become victims of a deep-rooted conspiracy,” said, Prof Mushtaq Mehdi of Srinagar, whose son also studies at Gousia College,
A resident of Lal Bazaar Dr Shabeer Ahmad said he calls his son four times a day to enquire about his safety. “We are worried about the safety of our children as they are being harassed there day in and day out.”
Parents have expressed dismay over the careless approach of regime in failing to ensure safety of Kashmiris in Indian states. “The plight described by students is heart-rending, condemnable and needs immediate attention of the regime led by Omar Abdullah and the civil society,” they said.
One of the parent namely Prof. Mushtaq Mehdi of Srinagar, whose son is pursuing studies in Ghousia College of Engineering, said that his family members are worried about their son after reports of assault on Kashmir students came to light in Ghousia College of Engineering. “My son told us that they are being harassed and were beaten by the locals and abused them for no reasons,” Mehdi said.
Sharing the same tale, Dr. Shabeer Ahmad, a resident of Lal Bazaar said that he regularly calls his son four times a day to enquire about his safety. “We are worried over the safety of our children as they are being harassed there.
One Kashmiri student said that yesterday during a seminar some Bihari students raised objection when a Kashmiri students in his lecture maintained that Kashmir has its own culture and identity.
“Students from Bihar called us terrorists and termed us anti-national. They thrashed some of the Kashmiri students and when we approached the police they didn’t take any action against the Bihari students,” Javid Ahmed said, reports CNS.
"We were shocked when we were detained instead. We had gone to police station to register a complaint against the Bihari student but to our utter surprise, the police officer told us that we Kashmiri’s are all terrorists and he lodged us in cell while the ‘goons’ were allowed to go free,” a student said.
Parents of students said that it is shocking to learn about their wards being harassed by locals students (Biharis). The management as well as the fellow students treat our youth is deplorable. The plight described by the students is heart-rending, condemnable and needs immediate attention of the regime led by Omar Abdullah and the civil society.
Criticizing the regime for failing to ensure safety of the Kashmiri students, another parent Mushtaq Qureshi said that the Omar Abdullah led regime is duty bound to ensure well-being of all the Kashmiris, especially the youth, who go out of the valley in pursuit of education. Reports emanating from last few years have shown increasing incidents of hate and dislike for Kashmiris. Mushtaq lamented.
The treatment meted out to the Kashmiri students studying in Ghousia College of Engineering Ramanagran has once more tattooed the impression that Kashmiris are unwanted and unwelcome in India, that claims Kashmir as its integral part. It is strange that an altercation between a Kashmiri student and the one from Bihar should have unleashed a shameless discrimination, bordering on apartheid, against the entirestudents community of Kashmir. (sources news agencies Srinagar)