Let There Be Light Beyond The Tunnel For Kashmiri Students

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
File photo

The tragedy in Pahalgam was brutal. Twenty-six civilians lost their lives in a horrifying attack that stunned the entire country. In the aftermath, there was mourning. There was outrage. But in some places, that anger took a cruel and familiar turn.

Just days after the attack, reports started coming in. 17 separate incidents of Kashmiri students and traders being targeted across India.

In Punjab, students were beaten on campus with sticks and knives. In Uttarakhand, they were told to leave their colleges or face worse. In Delhi, a student at Jamia Millia Islamia was reportedly assaulted. In Himachal Pradesh and Mussoorie, Kashmiri shawl sellers were hounded, threatened, and forced to run.

This isn't new.

Every time violence breaks out in the valley, the same thing happens. Innocent Kashmiris become punching bags for collective anger. They're asked to explain what they had nothing to do with. They're told to prove their loyalty. And too often, they're met with fists instead of questions.

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When something like Pahalgam happens, it's not just the people in Kashmir who suffer. Kashmiri students studying far from home carry a double burden. They mourn the loss back home.

And then, just when they need support, they're made to defend their identity in cities that promised them education and opportunity.

This kind of targeting gives the perpetrators of the attack exactly what they want. Their goal is not just to kill. It's to divide. It's to tear apart the fragile threads that hold this country together.

And when we respond by turning against each other, by punishing those who share only a geography, not guilt, we're playing into their hands.

Kashmiri students leave behind strife, stress and economic hardship to seek better lives. Many of them arrive on scholarships or with help from their communities. They don't come with safety nets. What they do bring is hope. They bring ambition. They bring the belief that India has space for them too.

And what do they get in return?

They get campuses that look the other way. They get college administrators who stay silent. They get law enforcement that arrives late, if at all.

Most of all, they get treated like suspects when they should be treated like students.

This needs to change.

It's time to move beyond symbolic sympathy. We need policies that work when emotions run high and tensions flare.

Colleges should have grievance officers trained to handle communal threats. Local police should work with universities to protect vulnerable groups, not just after an incident, but as a matter of routine. We need national protocols, not patchwork responses.

And it's not just about physical safety. The emotional toll is deep.

These students are already carrying trauma from where they come from. Asking them to issue public condemnations every time violence occurs is not fair, it's a form of emotional pressure no other student group is expected to endure.

It isolates them. It pushes them into silence. It strips them of the chance to just be young.

Every act of violence is condemnable. But if our only response is to lash out at people who had nothing to do with it, we've lost the plot.

The best way to honour the memory of the victims is to stay united. To show that even in grief, even in anger, we choose justice over vengeance.

Let's not hand victory to those who kill. Let's not do their work for them by turning on each other. The strength of a nation lies in how it treats its most vulnerable.

It's time for real protection, real policies, and real solidarity.

• . Views expressed in this article are author's own.

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