SRINAGAR: As reports and videos have emerged of Kashmiris being harassed in other parts of the country in the wake of Delhi car blast, J&K politicians have urged the central govt to intervene and ensure their safety.Former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti asked CM Omar Abdullah to take up the issue with the Centre, while Peoples Conference leader Sajad Lone urged PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to “ensure that any citizen of India, including Kashmiris, is not harassed in their own country”.While condemning the Delhi blast, Mehbooba said the doctor involved in the blast not only took his own life and that of others, but also made every Kashmiri outside J&K more vulnerable. She was in Kangan in Ganderbal district to offer condolences to the family of Bilal Ahmad Sango, who was injured in the Nov 10 Delhi blast and succumbed during treatment.The PDP chief appealed to the clergy, including Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, to counsel the youth against radicalisation. “Yes, after the abrogation of Article 370, the government resorted to harassment and large scale arrests, but that should not push our youth towards radicalisation,” she said.She also urged CM Omar to speak to the central government and end what she called the “collective punishment of Kashmiris”. “We understand the anger over the blast, but that doesn’t mean we should be subjected to collective punishment. Our youth are being profiled and evacuated from colleges and universities. We are going through troubled times, and our young people are now extremely vulnerable,” Mehbooba said.Nasir Khuehami, convenor of Jammu Kashmir Students Association, took to social media and claimed that “Kashmiri shawl sellers in Himachal Pradesh are reportedly facing harassment and profiling, post Delhi blast”. He said several Kashmiri vendors have alleged that local panchayat authorities and individuals are forcibly checking their bags under “unfounded suspicions of carrying weapons or explosives”.Khuehami said Kashmiris are being restricted from moving freely without prior verification from panchayat and local police, creating an atmosphere of fear, insecurity.Peoples Conference leader Sajad Lone also spoke out, saying, “Stereotyping of a Kashmiri, unfortunately, is a favorite hobby across the country; and it is not a new trend. It is just that it has become more chronic in the last decade.”While he accepted that extremism was a problem, Lone said that should not be an excuse to harass an entire community. “There are radical lunatics in every society, but they are an aberration,” he said.
