Punjab shocker: 3 Kashmiri youths allegedly abused, evicted by police from rented house

Punjab police allegedly forced three Kashmiri youths to leave their rented accommodation.

Chandigarh, May 16: At a time when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh clearly told all the state governments to provide safe environment to Kashmiri youths and students studying and working in various parts of the country, three Kashmiri youths have been allegedly abused and thrown out of their rented accommodation by policemen in Punjab.

The 'victims' added that the police harassed them because they are from Kashmir. According to a report by The Indian Express, three Kashmiri students have been "thrown out" of their rented accommodation in Punjab's Zirakpur after police allegedly asked them to leave the place.

The youths also allege that the police conducted a "search operation" in their rented accommodation to find out if they have any "arms" with them before asking them to leave their 'home'.

"The policemen asked if we are Kashmiris and told us 'yahan kuch karne aate ho aur wahan kuch aur karte ho' and then asked us if we had any weapons," Tajamul Imran, 25, who recently completed his MBA, told The Indian Express.

"The police first said that it is a usual verification but then they searched everything. They opened our bags, turned our bed... scattered our books. I do not know what they were looking for but it was more than torture."

Imran said he was staying in the rented house with his two other Kashmiri friends-- Mudasir and Asif.

"We have been living for two years in Punjab. We came to Zirakpur because Mohali was far from our college. All of us gave our identity papers including Aadhaar to the broker for verification," said Imran.

"They abused us and it was just short of beating. A police officer even said that whether we had any FIR registered against us in Kashmir. I told them they can verify.''

However, the broker, who helped them get the rented house, said that the three left on their own. "Their rent agreement was complete but they had told me they wanted to leave. The police did not tell me anything. They just called to confirm whether I was the broker," Satwinder Pal, the broker, said.

Police also denied the allegations levelled by the three youths against the force. "We carried out checking at all societies in the town on Sunday on the instructions of senior officers," Zirakpur station house officer Pawan Kumar said.

OneIndia News