Maharashtra: Kashmiri students beaten up in Yavatmal

The assailants even video recorded the whole incident and then uploaded on Motke’s Facebook page. “The Kashmiris will be driven out, beaten up again wherever they will be found,” Motke said in his FB page alongside the video. A slogan on the page said: “Kadha talwari, hakla Kashmiri” (take out swords, drive out Kashmiris).

The video went viral on social media on Thursday.

The incident occurred when the students, said to be studying in Dahyabhai Patel Sharirik Shikshan Mahavidyalaya were returning to their rented rooms from the market in Chintamani Nagar area of the city. Police Inspector Dharmaraj Sonule said, “the assailant group hailed from Yuva Sena and are currently absconding. We are looking out for them and are currently in the process of registering offence.”

According to the two victims, there are about 70-80 Kashmiri students studying in Yavatmal. They were trying to impress upon the assailants that they were in Yavatmal for the past more than one-and-a-half years for education since they had no hope to do that in Kashmir but Motke continued to assault them hurling expletives.

“You kill our soldiers there, don’t you? How many of your relatives there are terrorists? And what’s that thing you call as jihad, ah,” Motke kept asking even as he continued to assault the two students. “You shouldn’t be seen here again. Your relatives kill our soldiers. You get jannat by killing them, ah?” Motke said.

Shiv Sena MLA from Yavatmal’s Digras Assembly constituency Sanjar Rathod couldn’t be reached for his comment.

Following the terror attack in Pulwama which killed 40 CRPF personnel, a similar incident of Kashmiri students’ assault surfaced in Dehradun last week. However, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadear on Wednesday denied that students hailing from Kashmir were targeted in many parts of the country in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack.