Three Kashmiri students, who were arrested in Uttar Pradesh in October, have been in jail even after receiving bail on March 30 as no person is ready to be their guarantor for their surety, The Indian Express reported.
The purpose of surety is to make a person responsible for the act of accused persons after release.
The student’s lawyer, Madhuvan Dutt Chaturvedi, said that if the students had local guarantors, the verification process would have been completed early, The Times of India reported.
Three days after Pakistan beat India in a T20 World Cup match on October 24, Arsheed Yusuf, Inayat Altaf Sheikh and Showkat Ahmed Ganai were arrested on the basis of a complaint filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing leader.
Members of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha, as well as other Hindutva groups, also accused the Kashmiri students of chanting “anti-national” slogans. In protests held at the college campus, they demanded stricter action against the students.
However, the Allahabad High Court on March 30 had observed during its bail order that three Kashmiri students were falsely implicated in a case that resulted from “rivalries over trivial issues”.
Even after receiving bail, the three students have not received much support, said Nasir Khuehami, spokesperson of the J&K Students’ Association.
“The general perception about Kashmiris unfortunately is that they are ‘terrorists’,” said Khuehami to The Times of India. “No one wants to be linked with them. This sad narrative was created after the Pulwama attack.”
On February 14, 2019, an explosive-laden car driven by a suicide bomber rammed into a bus carrying 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, killing all of them. Pakistani terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility for the attack.
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