Spooked by threat video, Kashmir students flee Doon

DEHRADUN: Six Kashmiri students sat outside the locked doors of Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun, under dim floodlights and the half-watch of two security guards in the quiet hours before dawn on Thursday. They had arrived around 3:30am, fleeing their hostel in panic after watching a video in which a man warned that all Kashmiri Muslims must leave Uttarakhand by 10am or face "treatment". They waited until the terminal opened two hours later, sleepless and unsure of what to do next, before they made their escape.

The man in the video, Lalit Sharma of Hindu Raksha Dal, issued a deadline and said, "We will start from Dehradun... We won't wait for govt response..." His message spread quickly, amplified by social media. For Kashmiri students, already living in the uneasy shadow after the terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, the threat was real.

One of the students, enrolled in a paramedic programme at a private institute in the city, said the sense of danger began earlier that day. "A faculty member came to our room in the afternoon. He said there was an input that some people might come looking for us Thursday." The suggestion was to move to a 'safe house' temporarily. But as the hours passed, and the video circulated widely, fear eclipsed caution. The students called the college CEO, booked flights, and hired a taxi to the airport. They did not even stop to pack thoroughly.

By Thursday afternoon, nearly 20 more Kashmiri students had arrived at the airport, most of them having arranged their own departures. "Our exams were over anyway," the student said, adding, "Summer vacation is starting. We are not coming back anytime soon." None of them wanted to be named.