Srinagar: After a Kashmiri youth studying engineering in Dehradun allegedly joined militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, other students from the valley said that they were afraid that they might be asked to leave by local residents or be subjected to constant surveillance, Times of India reported.

They said that they were worried of being put under scrutiny by police after Shoaib Ahmed Lone, a BTech (IT) student at the Alpine Institute of Technology and Management in Dehradun’s Premnagar, allegedly joined the militant group. “Many of us came here because we know that Dehradun is peaceful. We are worried people might ask us to leave. I don’t want to go back,” said a student.

Times of India reported that Lone may have joined the militant group on September 21-22 and his family got to know about this after they saw a picture of him wielding an AK-47 on the social media on September 25-26.

According to police, there are more than a thousand Kashmiri students studying across several public and private universities in Uttarakhand.

Another student from HNB Garhwal Central University said that his parents were worried for his safety after they heard the news of Lone joining militancy. “I come from a relatively peaceful area in northern Kashmir, but my parents sent me here to keep me away from violence. The shadow of militancy, however, hasn’t left us here as well,” he said.

“We have also distanced ourselves from social media because we heard that police will be monitoring our activities,” he added.

ADG (law and order) Ashok Kumar said that social media is being monitored for suspicious activity.