With inputs by Tanveer Hussain Khan, an activist and researcher from Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir. I returned from Kashmir a few hours ago, and I am shattered by what I saw and heard.As someone born in Kashmir, the stories, the narratives, and the experiences I encountered during my visit have reopened wounds that never truly healed. But what I heard today is not merely a story about Kashmir. It is a story about India, about citizenship, about belonging, and about the kind of country we want to be.I was reminded of two poets separated by geography yet united by an extraordinary vision of India.Brij Narayan Chakbast wrote of Kashmir:“Chappa chappa hai mere Kashmir ka mehmaan nawaz,Raaste ke paththron ne bhi diya paani mujhe.”“Every corner of my Kashmir is hospitableEven stones along the road offered me water.”And then I thought of Panipat in Haryana – the land of my forefathers and foremothers. My great-grandfather, the great Urdu poet Maulana Altaf Husain Hali, wrote:“Tum agar chahte ho mulk ki khair,Na kisi humwatan ko samjho ghair.Ho Musalmaan usmein ya Hindu,Bodh mazhab ho ya ho Sikh bandhu.”“If you wish well for the countryDo not regard any fellow citizen as a strangerWhether Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Sikh.”Hali wrote these words for the country in the 19th century. Chakbast wrote about Kashmir in same era. Their message remains painfully relevant today.More than a century later, on October 17, 2026, we find ourselves asking whether we have forgotten what these poets understood: that a nation is not merely a territory. A nation is its people.What happened on the road to Kashmir?According to accounts emerging from passengers and the media, a passenger bus travelling from Delhi towards Kashmir was attacked at around 10.45 pm near Divine Star Dhaba in the Karnal area of Haryana. The passengers were reportedly travelling and sleeping when the confrontation took place. Stones and bricks were allegedly hurled at the bus. Windows and tail lights were damaged, and broken bricks reportedly landed inside the vehicle.An elderly Kashmiri passenger, reportedly from the Tangmarg-Baramulla area, was injured and left bleeding.The accounts given by passengers and the bus driver, Waqar, make the incident deeply disturbing. According to these accounts, the confrontation was not simply a routine disagreement about parking or giving way. Passengers have alleged that they were subjected to anti-Kashmiri abuse and threats before the attack.Among the alleged remarks was:“Arey, o aatankwadi, yahan gaadi mat lagao (terrorist, don’t bring your car here)!” — an accusation and insult directed at Kashmiri passengers.The allegations are serious and demand a fair, impartial and transparent investigation. If this was merely a parking dispute, as has reportedly been suggested, then the authorities must explain why passengers were allegedly subjected to identity-based abuse and threats, and why the confrontation escalated into the use of stones, bricks and rods.The victims’ accounts cannot simply be dismissed.There is another allegation that requires an answer. One Kashmiri passenger was reportedly detained by police for nearly two hours following the incident and was later released that night. If this account is accurate, Haryana Police must explain the circumstances and legal basis for the detention.Why was a passenger from the attacked bus detained? Was he an accused, a witness, or a victim? If he was a victim or witness, why was he treated in this manner?At the same time, the people alleged to have attacked the bus must be identified and questioned according to law. These are not unreasonable questions. They are questions that any citizen would ask when an incident involving violence, injury and alleged identity-based abuse takes place.The police have a responsibility not only to investigate but also to ensure that the victims have confidence in the investigation.What is the fault of Kashmiris?This is perhaps the most painful question of all.Why should a Kashmiri travelling through Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh or any other part of India fear for his or her safety simply because of an accent, an identity, a place of origin, or the registration number of a vehicle?Kashmiris are students; they are doctors, engineers, teachers, entrepreneurs, workers, traders, civil servants, artists and professionals. They travel across India for education, employment, business, family…. and ordinary everyday life. They are not outsiders.They are citizens.Their Jammu and Kashmir registration plates do not make them less Indian. Their place of birth does not make them suspicious.Their identity does not give anyone the right to insult, threaten or attack them.The Constitution of India promises equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on several grounds, including place of birth. These principles cannot remain words in a constitutional document. They must be reflected on India’s roads, in its universities, workplaces, markets and public spaces.You cannot love Kashmir and hate Kashmiris. There is a contradiction that India must confront honestly. Some people appear to say that they love Kashmir but struggle to accept Kashmiris. But how can one love a land while despising its people? How can Kashmir be celebrated as a paradise while Kashmiris are made to feel unwelcome elsewhere? How can we speak of national integration while allowing prejudice against fellow citizens because of where they come from?You cannot separate Kashmir from Kashmiris. The mountains, rivers, valleys, orchards and lakes of Kashmir are not separate from the people who have lived there for generations.If India wants Kashmiris to feel that they belong to this country – and they do – then belonging must be accompanied by dignity and security.A Kashmiri should not have to calculate the risk of travelling through another state.A Kashmiri mother should not have to worry about whether her children will be safe outside the Valley.A Kashmiri student should not have to hide his or her identity to avoid hostility.A Kashmiri worker should not have to apologise for where he or she was born.That is not integration; that is alienation.India’s unity must be lived, not merely proclaimed India’s unity cannot be built through slogans alone. It must be visible in how we treat one another. It must be present when a bus travelling from Delhi to Kashmir stops at a roadside establishment in Haryana. It must be present when a Kashmiri student enters a university in another state. It must be present when a Kashmiri trader opens a shop in a city far from home. It must be present whenever an Indian citizen crosses a state boundary.National unity means that a citizen from Kashmir should be able to travel through Haryana with exactly the same sense of security as a citizen from Haryana travelling through Kashmir. Anything less is a failure of the idea of India.Justice is not a favourWe strongly condemn the reported attack and demand that the Chief Minister of Haryana, Nayab Singh Saini, and the Haryana Police to ensure that the incident is investigated fairly and impartially.The perpetrators, if identified and found responsible, must face appropriate legal action. The injured passengers deserve justice. The families of those involved deserve reassurance.And the Kashmiri passenger reportedly detained after the incident deserves a clear explanation of why he was detained.The incident must not be reduced to a convenient narrative simply to avoid confronting the more disturbing allegations surrounding it.If the evidence establishes that this was only a dispute over parking or giving way, let the investigation establish that fact. But if the evidence establishes that the passengers were targeted because they were Kashmiri, then that truth must also be acknowledged and acted upon.Justice requires neither exaggeration nor concealment. It requires facts. The India we inherited – and the India we must protectI keep returning to Hali’s words:“Na kisi humwatan ko samjho ghair.”“Do not regard any fellow citizen as a stranger.”That principle is at the heart of India’s constitutional promise. My great-grandfather wrote those words in a period when India was struggling to understand its own future. Chakbast celebrated the hospitality of Kashmir. Their poetry belonged to another century, but their dreams remain unfinished.Today, in 2026, we have a choice.We can allow suspicion, prejudice and hatred to define how Indians see one another.Or we can return to the older and deeper idea of India – an India in which difference does not make someone a stranger; an India in which every citizen is protected by the same law; an India in which Kashmiris can travel without fear and dignity is not determined by geography.An attack on a Kashmiri, when driven by prejudice, is not simply an attack on one individual. It strikes at the values of equality, fraternity and constitutional citizenship.Kashmiris are citizens of India. Their safety is not negotiable. Their dignity is not negotiable. Their right to travel freely is not negotiable. And their belonging is not something anyone has the authority to grant – or take away.India does not become stronger when Kashmiris are made to feel like strangers. India becomes stronger when every Kashmiri can travel from Kashmir to any corner of this country knowing that the people on the road will see him not as a stranger, not as an enemy, but as a fellow citizen.That is the India Hali imagined. That is the India Chakbast celebrated. And that is the India we must not give up on.Dr. Syeda Hameed is a distinguished writer, scholar, and social activist. She is the Founder-Chair of the Muslim Women’s Forum and a former member of the Planning Commission of India. She is recipient of the Padma Shri.