PATIALA: After Kashmiri students were arrested for terror-related activities from Banur and Jalandhar in the last 15 days, the central security agencies have put Punjab on an alert to maintain cyber vigil to thwart any attempts by separatists to mislead students from Jammu and Kashmir studying in the state.Sources in the Punjab home department said that in the latest dossier sent to all northern states, the central intelligence agencies have laid out a detailed protocol to ensure that close watch is maintained on Kashmiri students, who have been provided with an opportunity to pursue their higher studies in some of the best technical education institutes, do not fall into trap of the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir.The sources said local police stations have been asked to ensure that PG accommodations and other rented homes in the vicinity of technical education institutes do not allow any suspected elements to stay with the students and also take all possible steps to get their credentials verified regularly.Under a special scholarship scheme for the students of Jammu & Kashmir started by the Union ministry of human resource development about six years ago, around 5,000 students from Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are selected each year and sent to pursue engineering and other technical courses in institutions across north India. The scheme is implemented through the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) which holds counselling each year in Jammu, Srinagar and Leh. The selected students are provided Rs 2.5 lakh a year towards their course fee and boarding expenses.At present, around 30,000 students through the scheme and 20,000 through direct admissions are pursuing their studies in northern states of Punjab, Haryana and the National Capital Region.The sources said following the unprecedented development in which some of these Kashmiri students came under the radar of the security agencies, all efforts were afoot to protect these students against the nefarious designs of separatists and guarantee that they complete their students and return to their parent state to help in its development.

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