National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday condemned the repeated attacks on Kashmiris in other parts of the country, saying those who wanted to establish "a Hitler’s regime" in India would meet the same fate as the Nazis.
Videos showing Rightwing activists attacking Kashmiri shawl traders are surfacing every few days, mostly from Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana, provoking anger in the Valley.
The Union home ministry recently condemned an attack on a Kashmiri in Uttarakhand, saying such crimes would not be tolerated. Police later arrested a Bajrang Dal activist.
Farooq, a former chief minister, equated the attackers with Nazis.
"This (attacks) is our fate. There are some people whose aim is something else. They are treading Hitler’s path and want to create a Hitler’s regime,” he told reporters in Srinagar, replying to a question on the attacks on Kashmiris.
“Hitler vanished; he shot himself. Nazism ended there and God willing, the time will come here as well when these extremists will go away.”
The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association, which has been flagging such incidents for days and criticising the central and state governments, posted a video on Thursday highlighting the alleged problems a Kashmiri woman, Munazza, faced in finding rented lodgings in Delhi.
“Half the population do not rent flats to Muslims here. The struggle becomes even tougher when they find you are a Kashmiri Muslim,” the woman purportedly says in the video.
“Are we not humans? What is happening? The same people tell us, ‘Why do you think you are different?’ You are the people who make us feel so.”
Munazza said she had visited seven or eight flats and was refused everywhere. She said one of the owners agreed initially but asked her to remove her hijab.
The students’ association said the intervention of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Himachal chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had led to the registration of an FIR over an attack on a Kashmiri in Himachal. A source said searches were under way to nab the alleged assailants.
In another instance, the association said, some people snatched shawls worth ₹20,000 from a Kashmiri trader and damaged them.
It alleged that Kashmiris were being forced to chant “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat Mata ki jai” — slogans that many Muslims consider impermissible under their faith.
Mohd Sayed Khan, a shawl vendor from Kachahama in Kupwara, has been robbed of ₹4.5 lakh in Kurukshetra, Haryana, in a communally motivated crime, the student body alleged. It said the suspects had been captured on CCTV footage.
Farooq, in his comments, also prayed for peace and friendship between India and its neighbours in the new year.
On external affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s participation in the funeral of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Farooq said the country was an old friend of India.
"It is good. Bangladesh is our old friend; we have to take the friendship forward and make it stronger," he said.