Accommodations of 8 Kashmiri students vandalised in Dehradun, belongings missing

Srinagar: Belongings of at least 8 Kashmiri students studying at the BFIT College, Dehradun-who returned to the valley recently in the aftermath of the Pulwama suicide attack last month-are missing after “rightwing extremists” allegedly vandalized their rented room in the vicinity of the institution, the students said.

Mohammad Asif, who is pursuing Master’s in Geography at the college, told Kashmir Reader over phone that the day they left for the valley, eight of them had kept their belongings inside a rented room at a flat in the vicinity of the college.

“When we returned to the room a couple of days back, the lock had been broken. Almost all our stuff including a laptop and other documents has been taken,” he said.

While some of the students returned to the college from the valley on Tuesday, others reached there on Wednesday.

One of the students said that some of their items “have been dumped inside the washroom” of the flat. “None of the items is in place,” he added.

The students alleged that the landlord of the flat, who they said lives at a distance from the place, “has given a free hand to the rightwing goons to vandalise the room” after they returned to the valley.

Despite lodging a complaint, the local police, the students alleged, “is showing leniency as the landlord himself is a cop”.

They said that the landlord had admitted taking their belongings. “He told the police officials over phone that he will return our stuff tomorrow (Saturday),” a student said.

The students who are pursuing different master’s programmes at the BFIT, Dehradun, said they were yet to approach the college administration. (KR)