Jammu and Kashmir’s regional parties have demanded transportation for stranded Kashmiris in cities across the country after scores of SOS videos surfaced online on Saturday.
In one such video, 34 Kashmiri labourers, working in a cold storage, claimed to be been stuck in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, without money. “We have no work at hand due to the lockdown. A colleague’s mother died. All her four sons were here and could not participate in the burial. Similarly, another colleague lost his wife and could not see her face one last time. We appeal to the government to help us return home as the holy month of Ramzan is near,” said a man in the video.
Over 230 students and pilgrims airlifted from Iran and quarantined in Rajasthan have also made videos on their isolation. “It’s our fifth week of quarantine. We have already gone for tests twice. They were negative but we have not been allowed to return home,” said a student, pursuing an MBBS from Tehran University, who has been kept in a quarantine centre in Jaisalmer.
Nasir Khuehami, a member of the J&K Students’ Association, on Saturday started a Twitter campaign to force the J&K administration to shift stranded Kashmiri students from across the country. “The aim is to press the government to evacuate Kashmiri students,” he said.
