Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday warned the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi against what he called intimidating the Kashmiri students at different universities.
With reference to a recent incident in which a group of Kashmiri students were allegedly forced to shout pro-India and anti-Pakistan slogans, roughed up and terrorised at a college hostel in Noida, Mr. Abdullah said at a rally in northern Kashmir that such acts of intimidation would only serve to alienate Mr. Modi to Kashmiris. He alleged that Mr. Modi’s henchmen had trooped into a hostel and terrorised the students.
“In a statement, Mr. Modi has attempted to denigrate the Kashmiris in the entire country as a communal race,” Mr. Abdullah said. “Mr. Modi, we are the people who raised the slogan of the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh unity. We have held this country’s flag high out of our conviction, not out of any compulsion. Be cautious that this act of yours to send your henchmen to the universities to terrorise the Kashmiri students will not help you to win the hearts of the Kashmiris. It will only take you away farther from them.”
“Mr. Modi, you should learn [how to protect] your guests from us. Every year, we receive hundreds of tourists and pilgrims. We treat them all as our guests. We take them on our shoulders to perform the pilgrimage and send them back home hale and hearty. When the situation deteriorates here, not one of them is harmed a bit. This is our respect for our guests,” Mr. Abdullah said.
