Spooked by threat video, Kashmir students flee Doon

DEHRADUN: Six Kashmiri students sat outdoors the locked doorways of Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun, below dim floodlights and the half-watch of two safety guards within the quiet hours earlier than daybreak on Thursday. They had arrived round 3:30am, fleeing their hostel in panic after watching a video wherein a person warned that each one Kashmiri Muslims should go away Uttarakhand by 10am or face “treatment”. They waited till the terminal opened two hours later, sleepless and uncertain of what to do subsequent, earlier than they made their escape.
The man within the video, Lalit Sharma of Hindu Raksha Dal, issued a deadline and mentioned, “We will start from Dehradun… We won’t wait for govt response…” His message unfold shortly, amplified by social media. For Kashmiri students, already dwelling within the uneasy shadow after the phobia assault on vacationers in Pahalgam, the threat was actual.
One of the students, enrolled in a paramedic programme at a personal institute within the metropolis, mentioned the sense of hazard started earlier that day. “A faculty member came to our room in the afternoon. He said there was an input that some people might come looking for us Thursday.” The suggestion was to maneuver to a ‘protected home’ briefly. But because the hours handed, and the video circulated extensively, concern eclipsed warning. The students known as the school CEO, booked flights, and employed a taxi to the airport. They didn’t even cease to pack totally.
By Thursday afternoon, almost 20 extra Kashmiri students had arrived on the airport, most of them having organized their very own departures. “Our exams were over anyway,” the coed mentioned, including, “Summer vacation is starting. We are not coming back anytime soon.” None of them needed to be named.