The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Chief Secretaries and DGPs of 11 states to take “prompt” action to prevent incidents of “threat, assault and social boycott” of Kashmiris, including students, in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack.
Seeking a response from states where incidents of threat and violence against Kashmiris were reported, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also directed that the police officers, who were earlier appointed as nodal officers to deal with lynching incidents, would now be responsible to deal with cases of assaults on Kashmiris.
The states whose authorities were directed to take necessary action were Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand. The direction also covered the Delhi Police commissioner.
The bench asked the Union Home Ministry to give wide publicity so that Kashmiri people who are being targeted can approach the nodal officers.
“The chief secretaries, the DGPs and the Delhi Police Commissioner are directed to take prompt and necessary action to prevent the incidents of threat, assault, social boycott etc against Kashmiris and other minorities,” the bench also comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna said.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah welcomed the Supreme Court directive.
