Profiling leads to fear among Kashmiri students in Karnataka

BENGALURU — Apparently after the ‘hijab row’, the Internal Security Division of Karnatka Police have started profiling Kashmiri students studying in different colleges in India’s southern State.

Reports said that the police in Karnataka has directed all the colleges to profile Kashmiri students. They have been asked to collect the personal details of Kashmiri students including their name, present and permanent address, e-mail, and cell number.

When contacted, City Police Commissioner Bengaluru Mr Kamal Panth categorically denied the role of police in it. He said no directions from the police have gone to colleges about the profiling of Kashmiri students.

State Education Minister, Dr CN Narayan also said that the government had not directed any college to collect personal details of Kashmiri students.

However, several Kashmiri students said that they were asked to fill up their personal details on a form.

Nasir Khuehami, the spokesperson for J&K Students Association told Kashmir News Trust that the Internal Security Division (ISD) of Karnataka has endorsed that profiling of Kashmiri students is being done on their direction. “We talked to different agencies that denied such profiling of Kashmiri students, but ISD of Karnataka endorsed the claim made by the Kashmiri students.”

Khuehami, while saying that this development has led to fear among Kashmiri students in Karnataka, quoted an ISD official as having said that this is a routine exercise and they do it every year.