Dehradun: A day after 20 Kashmiri girls were forced to lock themselves in their hostel room for hours after a group of over 500 locals and right-wing members surrounded the premises alleging that they had raised pro-Pakistan slogans, teachers of these students reached their hostel to convince them that the city is safe and they do not have to worry.Police force was deployed outside the hostel, as well as in the area, to ensure that no harm is done to these girls who are frightened after what had happened on Saturday.Arvind Gupta, Dolphin Institute chairman who was accompanied by women teachers of the institute, met these girl students in their hostel and assured them of full support. “We will never ask you to move out of college and the police will ensure that no one asks you to move out of the city,” he said.The girls are pursuing their masters in zoology, chemistry and botany from the institute.“All of them hail from good families and have excellent academic records,” Gupta told TOI.Superintendent of police (city) Shweta Chaubey, who was present on the spot, told the girls, “All of you have my personal phone number. I will take you all out for shopping if you want. It’s your city and no one can make you leave Dehradun.”It was a harrowing experience for these girls on Saturday after a group of local residents and activists of fringe groups surrounded their hostel in the middle of the state capital demanding the owner to “throw them out of the place”. The girls stayed locked in a room for over four hours even as police force was present on the spot. The girls claimed that the protesters left the premises only after they were made to “apologise to all the elders”.Rahul Pundir, a relative of BJP’s Sahaspur MLA Sahdev Singh Pundir, who was present at the protest outside the girls’ hostel in Suddhowala, claimed that the Kashmiri girls living in the hostel had raised “pro-Pakistan and anti-India” slogans from the terrace while the local residents were taking out a peaceful candlelight march after the Pulwama terror attack.Tahira Ali, one of the girls, refuted the allegations. She told TOI, “We called the police which arrived immediately but failed to disperse the mob. We were so scared that we were not able to open our room or go out to have any food.”Shazia Hamid, another student, said that the crowd dispersed after the girls apologized to them. “We joined our hands in apology and then the aunties agreed to leave the premises,” she added.Pundir, meanwhile, said that the situation was diffused “when the girls apologised and touched the feet of a few elders in the locality”.

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