Be sensitive while inquiring about J&K: MHA

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued an advisory to all States/UTs (Union Territories)(except Jammu & Kashmir) to exercise utmost sensitivity while making inquiries about residents of J&K living in different parts of the country.

It has also asked the States to issue appropriate instructions to all police stations that they should not be singled out unnecessarily for police reporting merely on grounds of their being original Kashmiri residents. MHA has asked to report to it the action taken in such cases.

A group of eminent persons appointed as interlocutors by the Government of India have been visiting the J&K State and they have received representations from the common man and various stakeholder groups that Kashmiri boys and girls are singled out by the police in the States outside J&K for asking them to report to the police stations merely on account of the fact that they are Kashmiri boys and girls.

This kind of treatment affects the sensibility of the residents of J&K and experience a sense of humiliation leading to feeling of alienation/injustice, said the MHA in a statement.

The Indian constitution and the law of the Land does not permit discrimination on account of race religion caste and creed, said the MHA.

The Valley had been witness to widespread unrest since mid-June last year when clashes had broke out between security personnel and stone-pelting mobs, which has claimed 63 lives so far.