Srinagar

In a relief to Kashmiris living outside the valley, Supreme Court on Friday issued directions to take necessary steps to prevent acts of violence, discrimination and other coercive acts against Kashmiris and other minorities in the wake of the February 14 Pulwama suicide attack.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi directed that the nodal officers be appointed as per the list furnished by the Attorney General so that all acts of assault, intimidation, social boycott and threat can be brought to the attention of a nodal officer.

The directions came in response to a petition seeking intervention to prevent attacks on Kashmiri post-February 14.

“The chief secretaries, the DGPs and the Delhi Police Commissioner are directed to take prompt and necessary action to prevent incidents of threat, assault, social boycott etc. against Kashmiris and other minorities,” the bench said. The notice was issued to Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand,

The matter has been scheduled for a further hearing to next week,

J&K’s two former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the decision of the apex court.

Reacting on his twitter, Omar said the Supreme Court had done what the “elected leadership in Delhi should have been doing”.

“Grateful to the Hon Supreme Court of India for doing what our elected leadership in Delhi should have been doing. The union HRD minister was busy living in denial & a Governor was busy issuing threats. Thank goodness the Hon SC stepped in,” he tweeted.

Mehbooba in her tweet wrote, “relieved about the SC order to ensure Kashmiri students based outside J&K are not harassed or face social boycott. Shameful that the honourable judiciary took decisive action where others conveniently turned a blind eye.”

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