On April 25, in Nakodar, Jalandhar, in India’s Punjab province, a 22-year-old Kashmiri student was brutally assaulted while on his way to meet a college friend. A mob confronted him, shouting, “Kashmiri ho?” (Are you a Kashmiri?). Before he could respond, they grabbed him by the hair and beat him mercilessly. His friend Atif*, described his voice afterward as “shaking, frightened, disoriented, and in pain.”
“This pattern is consistent with our research,” Raqib Hameed Naik, Executive Director at the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate, told TRT World. “Events like the Pahalgam attack are weaponised to inflame public sentiment and mobilise hatred.”
Beyond the threats online, real-world consequences are severe.