Kashmiri students studying at various colleges in Punjab have started returning home to the valley fearing harassment and arrest, alleging police were profiling them.
The students and their parents said Punjab police have issued “forms” through college administrations to be filled in by the Kashmiri students.
The forms entitled “Other students database” asks for details like full name, date of birth, gender, father’s name, address, contact, Aadhaar detail, date of admission and a photograph to be pasted on the supplied data sheet.
Kashmiri students were also being asked to intimate the police before going on leave and also on returning.
Consequently, the Kashmiri students from some colleges in Punjab have started informing respective local area Station House Officer (SHO) before heading out on leave.
Some of the students spoke to Greater Kashmir over phone saying they “have apprehensions of arrest” and therefore decided to return home.
“There is nobody to take care of us here,” a student said, declining to be named.
Additional director general of police (Law and Order), Punjab, H S Dhillion said the effort of collecting the details from the students was an “outreach programme”.
“This all is part of outreach programme,” Dhillion told Greater Kashmir.
“The students from Kashmir must not worry.”
Recently, a national newspaper reported that at least 40 students of the CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology alone have proceeded on leave. Other institutions where Kashmiri students are enrolled also reported similar flight out.
“At least 40 students have proceeded on leave. Students submitted applications, but before we could grant them leave they left. Intimations of all these students are being given to the police,” the report quoted Manbir Singh, MD, CT Group of Institutions as saying.
The report also quoted Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar as saying, “We are treading carefully and only students with confirmed terror links are being arrested. So a panic of this kind with PG accommodation owner is uncalled for. Kashmiri students are welcome in the state and there are no orders of any kind on their separate verification.”
