The Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), a community organisation representing resident Kashmiri Hindus, has issued a powerful appeal to the Centre and all State and Union Territory administrations, demanding immediate steps to ensure the “safety, dignity, and emotional well-being” of Kashmiri students.

“Justice cannot be selective. Compassion must not be conditional”, they mentioned.

Posting on X, KPSS stated: “These students, pursuing education far from conflict, must not be punished for acts they have no part in. They are not responsible for the Valley’s politics, they are simply trying to build better lives.”

The terror attack on April 22 saw militants open fire with automatic weapons on unsuspecting visitors, mostly tourists, who were sightseeing in a meadow above Pahalgam.

The fallout of this violence has now extended far beyond Kashmir.

The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA) has reported at least eight incidents of harassment against Kashmiri students outside the Valley.

Videos have emerged showing students being thrashed, including a case at Amity University in Noida and another in Chandigarh, where students alleged being attacked with knives leaving at least one injured.

A student in Uttarakhand told PTI, “Our professor suggested we shift to another place 50km from Dehradun for a few days. But we have booked flight tickets to Delhi. We left the campus at 2am on Thursday.”

The Jammu and Kashmir government has made public helpline numbers through its Delhi Resident Commission for distressed students.

The KPSS has also expressed “deep anguish, sorrow, and unequivocal condemnation” over the violence targeting students.

Drawing from their own history of persecution, the group wrote: “As an organisation that represents a minuscule and often forgotten religious minority of Kashmir, KPSS knows too well the weight of targeted violence, the sting of hatred, and the loneliness of being caught in the crossfire of narratives not of one's making.”

Calling the attacks “inhumane, unjustified, and morally indefensible,” the KPSS emphasised that Kashmiri students should not be made scapegoats.

“They are not militants, they are not ideologues...they are simply sons and daughters of Kashmir, trying to find a life beyond the shadows of conflict.”

The organisation warned that such retaliation “is a dangerous blow to the idea of India, a nation that promises constitutional protection and equal dignity to all citizens, regardless of their faith, region, or political backdrop.

KPSS also stated: “We understand the anger and frustration... But to let that pain metastasize into hatred toward innocents who bear no responsibility is to let our trauma win... Let us protect these students not despite them being Kashmiri Muslims, but precisely because we know what it means to be hunted for who we are.”

“Let us not become the monsters we once fled. Let us, instead, be the light we once searched for.”, the KPSS ended its statement.