‘No one stood up for us’: 16 shawl sellers leave Mussoorie for Kashmir after 2 are ‘assaulted by locals’

They are asked to produce their ID and told to leave the area. One of the vendors, Shabir Ahmed Dar from Kupwara, said they have been visiting the city for 18 years. “We visit Dehradun in the winter and Mussoorie in the summer. We live near the mosque and have known the locals for a long time. The men who assaulted us were also from the area and had seen us before. No one stood up for us. There are many workers from other states in Kashmir, but we have never misbehaved with anyone,” the 36-year-old said.

Dar claimed that the same day, policemen arrived at their doorstep. “Around 11 pm, police told us that they could not help us and there were threats levelled against Kashmiris in the wake of the Pahalgam attack, and it was better for us to leave. I called my brother back home, and he phoned a senior officer in our district (in Kashmir). The officer spoke with the cops here, and they said they cannot be held responsible if something goes wrong. This made us more anxious, and we left quickly,” he said.

However, police said that they did not ask everyone to leave, but advised those who had not registered or conducted verification with the police. The Dehradun police are conducting a verification drive to identify and register outsiders, including tenants, shopkeepers and vendors. The drive was launched last week.

Dar and 15 other vendors left for Dehradun the same night, took a bus to Jammu, and reached home the next day in a local vehicle. “Catch the perpetrators of the attack, not us. This is our only sustenance,” Dar said.

Javed Ahmed (30), another vendor who shares a room with Dar, said they had to leave behind goods worth Rs 12 lakh. “We do not know when we will be able to go back, but all our stock is there. Our fathers were once vendors there, and they have never faced these threats and assaults,” he said.

An officer also said that an outfit called Karni Sena took out a rally against Kashmiris in the city a few days ago, but they were “strictly dealt with”.

The three arrested — Suraj Singh, Pradeep Singh, and Abhishek Uniyal — were members of Bajrang Dal, the police said. “They were arrested under Section 81 of the Police Act, and challaned and let go of. They apologised for the offence,” the officer said. Section 81 of the Uttarakhand Police Act, 2007, deals with offences of disorderly conduct, specifically on roads, streets, thoroughfares, or public places.

In 2017, the traders’ body in Mussoorie had asked Kashmiri vendors and shopkeepers to leave the city following a cricket match between India and Pakistan in which the latter had won and a few juveniles had allegedly raised pro-Pakistan slogans. Though the children were not from the Valley, Kashmiris were accused of inciting them.