Dehradun is considered an education hub with students from different States and abroad coming here for schooling and higher education, especially the students from Jammu and Kashmir.
According to an estimate there are more than 5000 students in different institutes of Uttarakhand hailing from Jammu and Kashmir. The main reason behind students from J&K preferring Dehradun for education is its favourable climatic conditions, hospitality of the people and a generally low rate of crime with absence of religious, racial or regional discrimination.
However, some Kashmiri students staged a protest at Clock Tower following the hanging of Afzal Guru in February which had raised concern about whether this otherwise peaceful student fraternity was being instigated by someone.
Sixteen Kashmiri students were arrested and released the next day after being questioned. This incident had raised concern among both the Kashmiri student fraternity and the locals. The Pioneer tried to find out whether this incident has changed the way in which these students are treated in Doon Valley.
A Kashmiri student, Mushtaq Ahmad said, ‘’Being here for almost two years I never faced any difficulty in any respect, people here are very hospitable and the educational institutes provide good opportunities.
The climate here is favourable for us compared to other states”. Another Kashmiri student Mohammad Aamir said, “I am feeling very good here as there isn’t any sort of discrimination people here live in harmony. A Muslim student finds it easy to rent accommodation in a home owned by the Hindu,” he said.
Another student Ishfaq Ahmad said, “I used to live in a Hindu person’s home with the landlords family living in the ground floor while I had my room in the upper storey of the same house. The landlord often said that they were pure vegetarians but didn’t restrict us from eating non vegetarian food on the condition that I kept the doors and windows of the kitchen shut while cooking non-veg food,” he said.
Manzoor Ahmad from J&K says, “After the protest following Guru’s hanging the situation seemed tense as Kashmiri students here didn’t dared to leave their rooms. Many students were threatened and harassed to leave the city or face severe consequences, but now the condition is quite peaceful,” he said.
Barring some restrictions regarding non-vegetarian diet in homes owned by vegetarians, the students from J&K in Dehradun are quite happy with their experience here.