Violence Erupts: Kashmiris Targeted Across India Following Pahalgam Bloodshed; India Accuses Pakistan for Tourist Deaths, Yet locals Bear Brunt of Public Wrath
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Sidewalks of Jalandhar, India - Aasif Dar strolled through the tight, bustling streets of Jalandhar, a city in the northern state of Punjab, when he suddenly felt like a fish out of water.
And it wasn't a warm welcome.
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"I could sense the hostility in their stares," Dar recalled. "It was as if every person in the crowd held a grudge against me."
Accompanied by a friend, the pair stopped by an ATM when two strangers approached them for a chat. They grew anxious and fled the scene. The next morning, on April 23rd, Dar stepped out of his home to buy milk but was met with Islamophobic slurs from three men. One of them shouted, "He is a Kashmiri, everything bad happens because of them."
The tragic events of Tuesday, April 22nd, were still fresh in everyone's minds. Gunmen had ambushed tourists in the resort town of Pahalgam, killing 26 tourists and wounding over a dozen others.
India blamed Pakistan for the attack, which was claimed by an independence-seeking armed group, but the killings only served to expose the raw religious and ethnic wounds within the country.
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As Indian authorities hunted down the attackers in the treacherous mountains and dense forests of Pahalgam, Kashmiris living across India, particularly students, shared unsettling stories of harassment, heckling, and threats from far-right Hindu groups — or even classmates.
From Uttarakhand to Punjab, landlords shooed away Kashmiri tenants, and shopkeepers refused to do business with them. Several Kashmiri students spent nights sleeping at airports as they navigated their way home.
But someone else carried out the heinous attack. "Yet, we are left to bear the brunt of the repercussions," said Dar.
Lived in Suspense
The disputed region of Kashmir is divided, though both India and Pakistan claim it in full.
New Delhi accused Islamabad of supporting "cross-border terrorism" in connection with the Pahalgam attack, while Pakistan denies the allegations and maintains that it only provides moral and political support to Kashmiri nationalism. India has not provided any evidence of Pakistan's involvement, leaving the neighboring nations locked in a tense standoff: New Delhi abandoned a water-sharing treaty; both countries expelled each other's citizens and are downsizing their diplomatic presences in each other's capitals.
But it's the ordinary Kashmiris who bear the brunt of the anger stemming from the attacks.
Over a dozen Kashmiris who spoke with Al Jazeera (all on condition of anonymity) said they had barricaded themselves in their rooms in at least seven cities in India and tried to avoid any contact with the outside world, including online orders or taxi rides.
Dar is a second-semester student studying anesthesia and operating theater technology in Jalandhar. This is his first time away from his parents and Kashmir to pursue higher education.
"Opportunities are scarce in Kashmir, and I dream of a better future through hard work," he said in a phone interview. "But the reality is daunting. With my examination dates looming, I find myself overwhelmed and depressed. My mind is constantly clouded with uncertainty."
"Mistrust looms everywhere I look," he said. "We are cursed because our ethnicity gives us away."
Soon after the attack, survivor accounts revealed that the gunmen had separated their victims by religion. Of the 26 people killed, 25 were Hindu men.
However, the identity of the 26th victim, a Kashmiri Muslim man who tried to prevent the attackers from murdering the tourists, was largely overlooked amid the wave of anti-Kashmiri and anti-Muslim sentiment on Indian social media.
"Today's India thrives on xenophobic propaganda, and this hatred has been building up for some time now," Sheikh Showkat, a political analyst and academic based in Kashmir, stated. "Kashmiris bear the brunt of hostility because our ethnicity and religion make us easy targets."
Time's Up
Nearly 350 kilometers (217 miles) away from Jalandhar, in Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand state, a leader of a far-right Hindutva group issued a chilling warning on Tuesday.
"We won't wait for the government to act... Kashmiri Muslims, leave by 10 am, or else face consequences you can't imagine," Lalit Sharma declared in a video statement. "Tomorrow, all our workers will leave their homes to give these consequences to Kashmiri Muslims."
Similar threats were soon circulating on the social media feeds of Monish Wani, a 29-year-old Kashmiri student in the city. Panic set in among his fellow students.
Recalling the violent attacks against Kashmiris in Dehradun following the 2019 Pulwama bombing, Wani was aware of the dangers.
"This is what our lives are like," he lamented. "This keeps happening again and again... why can't India eliminate the militants in one go?"
Since the threats, Wani helped coordinate the travel of at least 15 students returning to Kashmir. He remained in a friend's home, preparing for his exams that began the following week. Despite the fear, he felt a flicker of hope after the police arrested Sharma, the far-right leader, and assured Kashmiri students of their safety.
New Dawn for Kashmir?
Omar Abdullah, the newly elected chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, called on other state chiefs to ensure the safety of Kashmiris following videos of terrified Kashmiris and physical attacks against them in multiple Indian cities.
"I ask the people of India not to view the people of Kashmir as their enemies," Abdullah later told reporters. "What happened here was not of our own doing. We are not the enemies."
In 2019, the Indian government unilaterally revoked the region's semi-autonomous status and divided the former state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh – amid a communications blackout. Even though Abdullah took office last year after the first state legislature elections in a decade, the Jammu and Kashmir government now has less power than any other provincial administration, with New Delhi holding the reins.
Umer Parray, a resident of southern Kashmir, has been studying pharmacy in Jammu for five years. Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu-majority Jammu are two administrative blocks of the union territory.
Until the events in Pahalgam, life had been relatively peaceful in Jammu, he said. But that changed.
"The attack opened old wounds and brought forth a wave of fear," he said.
(First names of Kashmiri students have been altered to protect their identities in fear of retaliation.)
- Aasif Dar, a Kashmiri student, felt like a 'fish out of water' in Jalandhar, India, encountering Islamophobic slurs and hostile stares.
- Gunmen ambushed tourists in Pahalgam, killing 26 tourists and wounding over a dozen others, leading to heightened tension and xenophobia towards Kashmiris in India.
- Kashmiris faced vengeance from far-right Hindu groups, with landlords shooing them away, shopkeepers refusing to do business, and school or university students experiencing harassment and threats.
- The disputed region of Kashmir would often find itself in 'war-and-conflicts', with both India and Pakistan accusing each other of supporting 'cross-border terrorism'.
- Amidst the tensions, ordinary Kashmiris lived in 'suspense', barricading themselves in their rooms and avoiding contact, as the 'politics' between the two nations kept escalating.
- The general news about the Tigers of Kashmir (Toug) attack in Pahalgam also highlighted the war-and-conflicts and crime-and-justice aspects, with the brutality prompting calls for immediate action from political analysts and leaders.
- Despite the fear and distress, Kashmiris continued to pursue their dreams, such as Aseef Dar, a Kashmiri studying anesthesia, who was determined to better his future through hard work amidst the chaos.
