Kashmiri doctor in Kolkata faces threats after Pulwama terror attack, asked to ‘go back’

KOLKATA: After the convoy of security forces in Kashmir carrying around 40 CRPF was targeted in Pulwama district on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, the government of India issued a directive to the State Governments to ensure the security of Kashmiris in the other Indian states.
Kolkata is now living evidence of how the city may have changed over the years as a 42-year-old doctor from Srinagar, who has spent the last 22 years working here in Kolkata faces threat as he is asked to go back following the Pulwama attack.
A group of six people asked him “to go back home to Kashmir” as staying in the city would have “consequences” for him and his family. The doctor lives in a housing society on Kustia Road with his wife and two daughters.
He stated that “I have never faced anything like this in this city. In fact, I felt safer in Kolkata than in Srinagar.” 22 years ago he moved to Kolkata and started practising at nursing homes, later he got married to a Kolkata girl and decided to stay back in the city.
“There were six youths, aged between 25 and 30, who got down from an SUV parked in front of my residence. All of them, wearing saffron bandanas, stood in front of me and asked us to leave the city at once. Some of them pushed me around and told me to go to Pakistan,” said the doctor.
This comes after the deadliest terror attack on security forces in Kashmir in which over 40 CRPF personnel were killed when their convoy was targeted in Pulwama district on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.