As Kashmir Valley grapples with gunfights, curfews, stone-throwing and police firings in the latest flare-up engulfing it, several Kashmiris are caught in the crossfire miles from home. In Delhi, a number of Kashmiri students and professionals say that slurs of “Pakistani agents” are routinely hurled at them. Some have even applied for leave from work, rather than brave the hostile taunts of colleagues.

On July 17, 24-year-old Aamir Amin was attacked by a group of locals in Dwarka, a neighbourhood in southwest Delhi, for carrying placards that read ‘Stop innocent killings’ and ‘I am from burning Kashmir’. The placards were in response to the protests that erupted across Kashmir following the July 8 killing of the militant Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani by security forces in south Kashmir’s Kokernag town. The slogans resulted in police detention for Amin, an MNC employee, who now lives in fear.

The protests also struck a chord with 24-year-old Mehraj Kanroo (name changed), a Kashmiri working at a leading software company in Delhi for four years. The reactions of his colleagues, however, left him stunned. There was an overnight change in their attitude towards him, he says, adding that he no longer felt like going into office. “Whatever be the discussion, it always comes round to Kashmir and Pakistan; and every time, I have to clarify that Kashmiris don’t like Pakistan either. We are never against India, but are fighting for the peaceful resolution of Kashmir, which India promised us. We only want India to fulfil its promise of holding a plebiscite.”

Kanroo is equally angry over the partisan reportage on Kashmir in a section of media, branding them propaganda machines that “add fuel to the fire”. “The wrong reportage and depiction of protests in Kashmir is creating an atmosphere of unease for us in Delhi,” he says.

Echoing this sentiment, 29-year-old Syed Ahmad (name changed), employed with an online media agency in Noida, asks angrily, “How many times are we to explain that our fight is not against India, but its military occupation in Kashmir?” He adds, “Given a choice between India and Pakistan, I would definitely like to be in India, rather than going to troubled Pakistan.” He says he was mocked in office after the killing of Burhan Wani.

“Some of my colleagues cheered the killing and asked me what Kashmiris would do now, like I am the one who decides,” he says. Pointing out that the entire world knows that the territorial dispute over Kashmir is between India and Pakistan, he says Kashmiris merely want this conflict to end. “Often, colleagues question me about the unfurling of the Pakistani flag in Kashmir... I haven’t understood what I have to do with that,” Ahmad says.

Tired of the incessant questioning and discussions on Kashmir in office, Ahmad used a fake medical certificate to apply for two weeks’ medical leave. He believes that Delhi is more heavy-handed with Kashmiri protesters, when compared to its handling of protests elsewhere in India.

“If India calls Kashmir an integral part then it shouldn’t use force to tackle protests, rather it should create a platform to understand the core issue. See for yourself what happened in Haryana during the Jat agitation and the Patel agitation in Gujarat. There was loot, arson and even raping of women, but there was no use of pellets.” Ahmad is keen to return to the Valley but “my bank debts stop me,” he says.

This sense of alienation among Kashmiris living outside the State cuts across religions. Sakshi Pandita (name changed), a top management professional in a multinational company, recently opted to work from home. A Kashmiri Pandit by birth, Pandita has however never lived in the Valley. Her entire idea of Kashmir is built on memories borrowed from her grandmother. Since fleeing the Valley in 1990, her family has been living in Jammu division, but every time a protest erupts in Kashmir, she finds herself at the receiving end of her “nationalist” colleagues’ rants.

“Every day, a few of my nationalist colleagues start a discussion on Kashmir as soon as I enter the office, and all of it is directed towards me... I am being harassed over something I don’t even know about,” she says. “They even suggest that Kashmiris should not be allowed to work in India and should be thrown out, sending chills down my spine. It is this kind of narrative that is alienating Kashmiris more.”

More than 55 people have been killed and 3,000 injured in the clashes that followed Wani’s killing. The use of pellet guns, leading to hundreds of eye injuries, has led to an international outcry. The local media in Kashmir, quoting health officials, reported that almost a dozen of those injured won’t be able to see again.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti have called for calm, but that hasn’t succeeded in cooling tempers on the ground.

Meanwhile, in a rare development, National Conference leader Iftikhar Misgar quit the party to join the separatist movement. Misgar, who recently lost to Mehbooba Mufti in the June by-poll from Anantnag, raised pro-Azaadi and anti-India slogans at a public rally in the town before announcing his decision to leave the party and join the separatist movement.

Tawqeer Hussain is a Delhi-based journalist