An alleged affair between a Kashmiri student and the wife of a local Nagpur goon is now among the many concerns of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah. Mr Abdullah has been pushed to intervene in the matter after reports in local Kashmiri newspapers claimed that more than 100 Kashmiri students were in hiding after attacks by the local hoodlum. The reports also led to outrage on Twitter, with some people even linking the RSS, which is headquartered at Nagpur, to the incident.
A Kashmiri student of physical education at the Vasant Rao Naik Sarvishiksha Mahavidyalaya, which is also called Pandav Group of Institutions, told The Asian Age that about 150 Kashmiri students in Nagpur have gone into hiding after threats issued by a local goon called Gaffar Bhai. “We are scared and hiding. Nobody is helping us. We haven’t gone to college for two weeks,” he said.
“One of our colleagues had an extramarital affair with the gangster’s wife three years back. He fled later to Kashmir but the gangster is venting anger on the Kashmiri students here. We had arranged a meeting with him and apologized to him on behalf of our colleague. He seemed to be pacified after that, but later he came to college and thrashed Kashmiri students there. He has been doing this off and on. We are around 150 students here and many have already fled to nearby areas or home,” the student added.
When contacted local Nandanvan police station senior inspector Sunil Jaiswal said, “We have heard about this incident, but there is no official complaint. We are trying to verify it.” The inspector also confirmed that there is a Gaffar Bhai there who has a criminal background.
However, the students claimed that they are scared to lodge a police complaint as the gangster has good contacts with the police. “We made a complaint to the police over phone, but the police didn’t show any urgency to act against the gangster. So we decided against filing an F.I.R. on the advice of our professors and Principal,” a student said.
The college authorities were not reachable at the time this report was filed.
After the threat issued by the goon, even the landowner in whose building the students were living in Hasanbaug area, has asked them to vacate the premises, a student, who declined to be named, said.
“Nobody is willing to rent apartments to Kashmiris now as no one wants to annoy him. He even thrashed the lady owner of a residence having Kashmiri tenants and didn’t spare even her daughters,” the student said.
Meanwhile, reacting to twitter posts, the J&K CM tweeted, “I have spoken to the police authorities & am satisfied its been suitably taken up in Nagpur. Will review tomorrow & assess again.” He also expressed displeasure about some posters mentioning RSS in their tweets.
“When you say "Nagpur, the RSS bastion" you give the impression that Kashmiris are being harassed by RSS sympathetic,” tweeted Mr Abdullah.