Continuous Violent Incidents Against Kashmiris Show How We Are Alienating Our Own People

Another day, another city, and almost the same story played out. On Wednesday, two street vendors selling dry fruits were beaten up by a mob for no fault of theirs, but for the fact that they belonged to Kashmir.

Ever since the Pulwama terror attack, last month where more than 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide bomb blast this has been an all too familiar story. Yes, everyone in this country were angry and wanted revenge for the blood of our soldiers, a small section of our society decided to take it upon themselves to give justice to the families of the martyrs, by not going to war, but by intimidating and beating up Kashmiris.?

Kashmiri students studying in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Punjab and UP were forced to flee or go underground following a series of attacks and threats. Some colleges even went step further and decided not to admit Kashmiri students from next academic session.??

It wasn't just the Kashmiri students that were facing the heat. Business owned by Kashmiris across India too face the backlash with many of them being vandalised. Some hoteliers and shop owners even put up notices reading no entry for Kashmiris.?

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While most of these actions were done by individuals or fringe groups,? Tathagata Roy the governor of Meghalaya, who is known for his controversial comments took it a notch further by calling for a boycott of Kashmir and Kashmiri businesses.

"Don’t visit Kashmir,don’t go to Amarnath for the next 2 years. Don’t buy articles from Kashmir emporia or Kashmiri tradesman who come every winter. Boycott everything Kashmiri," Roy said in a tweet which he claimed was an appeal from a retired colonel of the Indian Army.

It is quite ironic that from a governor to the guys who beat up the two street vendors had one thing in mind - to teach Kashmiris a lesson by boycotting them, killing their tourism industry and not letting them study in your cities.

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Himanshu Awasthi, one of the 'absconding' attackers who assaulted the two dry fruits sellers wanted to teach them a lesson for everything that has happened in Kashmir including stone pelting on security forces to the terror attack on amarnath pilgrims, none of them which an ordinary civilian from Kashmir had anything to do with.?

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We all agree that Kashmir is and will always remain an integral part of India. But instead of integrating Kashmiris into our midst over the years what we have done is to alienate them.

By trying to make Kashmiri students and businessmen accountable for the actions of the extremists we will only achieve what Pakistan wants - to alienated the masses, make them anti-India and make the call for secession and 'aazadi' even louder.? ??