'Don't believe rumours,' says Uttarakhand Police after reports of Kashmiri students trapped in Dehradun hostel

The Uttarakhand Police on Sunday issued an alert urging citizens to not believe in “rumours” that 20 Kashmiri students in Dehradun had locked themselves up in their hostel rooms because of a mob attack.

The state police wrote:

The development comes amid reports of a group of local residents and fringe activists surrounding the girls’ hostel and demanding that its owner “throw them out”. The mob was protesting against Thursday’s terrorist attack in Pulwama. 

The Indian Express  quoted one of the 20 students as saying: “We are up to 20 girls, and we have locked ourselves inside our hostel rooms. Hundreds of people have surrounded our hostel. Many of them have lathis and stones. We have switched off the lights. We asked the police for help and they came here, but they are asking us to face the mob and apologise. What should we apologise for? They are calling us traitors, but we haven’t done anything to be called that. We can’t open the door. We are very scared. We have no one to ask for help.”

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Police has set up a helpline for Kashmiri students facing any threats in any part of the country. 

J&K #Police has established a #helpline for the #assistance of #Students/#generalpublic who are presently staying outside J&K in case they find any difficulty. You can call us for any kind of assistance on 0194-2451515. @JmuKmrPolice

— Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) February 16, 2019

The CRPF also set up a 24x7 helpline on Saturday. The ‘Madadgaar’ helpline  shared a tweet saying that Kashmiri students and residents currently out of the state can contact them over the Twitter handle ‘@CRPFmadadgaar’. They can call on the 24x7 toll free number 14411 or send an SMS to 7082814411 “for speedy assistance in case they face any difficulties or harassment”.

Political leaders, including AAP MLA Alka Lamba and Karnataka deputy chief minister G Parameshwara , have called for peace and have encouraged students to use the helplines in case of trouble.

The reports come in the wake of Thursday’s terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, where 42 CRPF personnel were killed. A   Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber rammed a vehicle  carrying over 100 kilograms of explosives into their bus.

More than 2,500 CRPF personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Kashmir Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway.