SRINAGAR — Three Kashmiri students were thrashed after unidentified men dragged them out their apartment in Mohali of Punjab and assaulted them. Two injured students have been hospitalized, reports said.
The victims have been identified as Azaaan Elahi, Inam Nabi and Moin Fayaz, who hail from Central Kashmir’s Budgam district and North Kashmir’s Baramulla district. While Azaan and Inam are pursuing professional courses at Rameshwar Institute of Management and Information Technology, Moin is an engineering student at Guru Gobind Singh College of Management and Technology in Punjab.
Their courses are funded by the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme for Kashmiri students, a 2010 project under which meritorious Kashmiri students from underprivileged backgrounds study engineering and other professional courses in several private colleges across the country.
According to Punjab Police, the victims lived in an apartment complex in Mohali’s Kharar, which falls in the jurisdiction of Punjab’s SAS Nagar police station. On January 17, around 10 pm, some men from the society dragged them out of their room, accusing them of making a noise during night hours.
“The victims were beaten up badly and two of them had to be hospitalized,” Saqlain Mohammad, a Kashmiri student who also studies in Punjab, said.
“More than two dozen men accused the students of making a noise and assaulted them mercilessly while the victims kept begging them for forgiveness,” Saqlain said.
The students were rushed to to a local hospital. “Two of them had to be hospitalized and they were discharged after their wounds were treated,” said Nasir Khuehami, national spokesperson for J&K Students Association.
Saqlain said the perpetrators hurled abuses at the students. Photos of the injured students were circulated on social media, showing bruises on their backs suffered during the alleged assault. Some of them had also suffered lacerations in hands and feet.
The Punjab police, in a tweet, said the “complaint” has been forwarded for action. “The complaint is further forwarded to SAS Nagar police station for immediate legal action,” the police tweeted. — (Agencies)