Lucknow, March 9: Kashmiri dry fruit vendors who were thrashed by a local right-wing outfit, Vishwa Hindu Dal trust on March 6 were back to selling dry fruits on Daliganj bridge in old Lucknow’s Hasanganj area on Friday. According to reports, the vendors 35-year-old Abdul Salam Naik and 40-year-old Afzal Naik occupied the same spot, where they were attacked while trying to attract customers. The vendors were called terrorists and asked to show their Aadhaar card during the attack. They were rescued by the locals. If Kashmiri Students Targeted, BJP Workers Must Protect Them: Rajnath Singh.

After the incident, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdulah called upon Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to punish "those guilty of this assault". He tweeted, “Nothing will do more damage to the idea of India in Jammu and Kashmir than videos like these," he said in a series of tweets along with the video post.  "Keep thrashing Kashmiris like this on the streets at the hands of RSS/Bajrang Dal goons and then try to sell the idea of 'atoot ang' (unbreakable part), it simply won't fly."

A day after the attack on the Kashmiri vendors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned that such acts of hooliganism would not be tolerated. The PM lauded the state's Yogi Adityanath-led government for swiftly acting against the accused.

Meanwhile, Singh on Friday asked workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to protect students of Jammu and Kashmir living in other parts of the country. Addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Beawar, Rajnath Singh told BJP members to come in support of Kashmiri students wherever they are targetted.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 09, 2019 01:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).