SC hearing plea today, NHRC issues notices

SRINAGAR: The Supreme Court Thursday agreed to hear tomorrow a PIL seeking protection for Kashmiri students being targeted following the Pulwama terror attack in different parts of the country.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), meanwhile, issued notice to the Union Ministries of Home and Human Resource Development seeking a report over the reported ill-treatment of Kashmiri people in the aftermath of the attack.

Forty CRPF personnel were killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14 when a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus.

An apex court bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices L N Rao and Sanjiv Khanna took note of senior advocate Colin Gonsalves' submission that the plea for protection needed to be heard urgently as it relates to the safety and security of students.

The bench, which refused to list the plea for hearing on Thursday, however, assured Gonsalves that it will be listed for consideration on Friday.

The petitioner Tariq Adeeb, a lawyer, alleged in his plea that students from the Kashmir Valley are being attacked at different educational institutions across the country after the Pulwama attack and authorities concerned should be directed to take action to stop such assaults.

The petition, filed through advocate Satya Mitra, sought direction to the Centre for taking steps to prevent "threats, assaults, violent attacks, social boycotts, ostracism, evictions and other coercive acts" committed by groups and mobs against "Kashmiris and other minorities".

"There is a sudden rise in the incidents of crimes against Muslims and Kashmiris after the Pulwama attack....," it alleged.

Former home and finance minister P Chidambaram said some people want Kashmir to be part of India but don't want Kashmiris to be part of Indians, asserting that the "irony of the situation is depressing".

"The irony of the situation is depressing. We want Kashmir to be part of India, but we do not want Kashmiris to be part of Indians," the senior Congress leader said.

In a series of tweets, Chidambaram also took a dig at Tathagata Roy's statement and Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar's remarks that students from the Kashmir Valley faced no threats.