Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani has assured that police and intelligence agencies will not harass Kashmiris studying in various colleges and universities across the country.

He said this in a meeting with the vice-president of Jammu and Kashmir's People's Democratic Party, Mehbooba Mufti.

Mehbooba met the deputy prime minister and other political leaders in connection with complaints of harassment of Kashmiri students in Uttar Pradesh.

The counter-terrorism wing of the UP police had recently arrested four Kashmiris pursuing degrees in agriculture.

The police claimed that the students were affiliated to the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

But their parents, teachers and fellow students said they were innocent.

The arrests triggered a wave against hundreds of Kashmiri students enrolled in UP colleges; their landlords began asking them to leave and the police began verification drives, which added to the paranoia.

The PDP vice-president, who made a name by championing the cause of human rights in Kashmir, visited the students at colleges in Rourkee and Meerut towns of UP before meeting Advani.

"In Rourkee and Meerut, I found that Kashmiri students were facing problems because of the police verification drives and the sudden mistrust their landlords had developed towards them. In fact, the landlords had asked many of them to leave and in some cases colleges were threatening to withhold results till the students from Kashmir produced verification certificates provided by the police," Mehbooba told rediff.com

"Most of these students come from poor families who sold their properties to send them out of Kashmir for studies. But the situation is such that if they go to a hotel to book a room, more often than not they do not get it. I told him that if these boys are not welcome in their own country what options do they have,"
the PDP leader said.

At the same time, she emphasised that there can be a "few bad cases". "If someone is involved in an unlawful activity, he should be investigated and booked under law," she added.