On November 17, 44 workers from the Districts of Doda and Kishtawar in Jammu & Kashmir were ‘detained’ by locals at a railway station near Tinsukia in Assam as they appeared ‘suspicious’ to them. These workers had disembarked from a train coming from Chandigarh on their onward journey to Arunachal Pradesh. These skilled workers had been engaged by a contractor for work on power grid project in Arunachal. Some of the locals who ‘detained’ them wanted their verification whether they were ‘Pakistanis’.

This crude harassment is a result of toxic atmosphere against Kashmiris created by the RSS-BJP ruling at both at the Centre and in Assam. This is not an isolated incident of harassment of Kashmiris but is being widely seen in the RSS-BJP ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Himachal and Uttarakhand. Kashmiris especially students and vendors have reported facing harassment like profiling and suspicion, verbal abuse and threats, eviction of Kashmiri tenants and even physical assaults. Kashmiris face not only Islamophobia but also prejudice against Kashmiris. In Assam, RSS-BJP Govt. has been especially known for its anti-Muslim bias and harassment of Muslims under its campaign against ‘foreigners’.

Such harassment and propaganda against Kashmiris underlying it, are against the claims by the Union Govt. that they are not against Kashmiris and further their claim that they want to win over Kashmiris. But these are only in words while RSS-BJP Govt. suppress their democratic rights attacking even the press and create suspicions against them in other states.  This toxic atmosphere results in exacerbation of attacks against Kashmiris after every terror attack like after Pahalgam. In 2019 after Pulwama there were widespread attacks against Kashmiris, especially students, in north Indian states.

CPI(ML)-New Democracy strongly condemns this ‘detention’ and demands that action be taken against those participating in such attack and those behind it. We also condemn anti-Kashmiri and anti-Muslim propaganda which has created the toxic atmosphere. We demand full security of Kashmiris living and working in all states of India. It is the duty of Union Govt. and state govts. to ensure their security.

CPI (ML)-New Democracy

November 21, 2025