Srinagar/May,16: Three Kashmiri students were “thrown out” of their rented accommodation in Zirakpur area of Punjab after police allegedly asked them to leave the place, a media report said today.
Their eviction came just hours after about a dozen policemen came to their house to verify their credentials on Sunday, reported Indian Express.
“The policemen asked if we are Kashmiri and told us ‘yahan kuch karne aate ho aur wahan kuch aur karte ho’ and then asked us if we had any weapons,” said Tajamul Imran, 25, who recently completed his MBA.
“The police first said that it is a usual verification but then they searched everything. They opened our bags, turned our bed… scattered our books. I do not know what they were looking for but it was more than torture.”
Imran said that the police called the broker, who had helped them get accommodation, to remove them.
His classmates, Mudasir and Asif, had shifted to Zirakpur from Mohali on April 24. “We have been living for two years in Punjab. We came to Zirakpur because Mohali was far from our college. All of us gave our identity papers including Aadhaar to the broker for verification,” said Imran.
He feared they would be killed in a fake encounter when the policemen began searching their apartment, said the report.
“They abused us and it was just short of beating. A police officer even said that whether we had any FIR registered against us in Kashmir. I told them they can verify.’’
The students said that they requested their landlord to give them some time until they can find another accommodation.
But he allegedly refused to budge and forced them to leave the apartment hours later, added the report.
“The police had already called the broker and landlord. They said that they understand our problem but the police has said they (broker and landlord) would be held responsible if anything happens in the area,” added the report.
The alleged eviction came two days after Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked states to provide a “comfortable environment” to Kashmiri youth studying or working outside Jammu and Kashmir.
