Srinagar: For the last three to four years, Danish Ganai, a resident of the frontier Kupwara district in north Kashmir, has been making a living during winters by working as a Kashmiri shawl hawker in Uttarakhand. This year, his younger brother Tabish Rashid insisted on joining him to support their poor family. On Wednesday (January 28) evening, after going around hawking shawls in Himachal Pradesh’s holy town of Poanta Saheb, the two brothers were returning to their accommodation in Uttarakhand and had stopped for a quick bite at a shop in the outskirts of the state’s Vikas Nagar.Before a whack of the iron rod on his head left him unconscious, Rashid heard the assailant telling the shopkeeper: “They are Muslims. Let’s finish one first and deal with the other later.”“The shopkeeper initially took offence because we were speaking in Kashmiri language. He said that Uttarakhand is not Kashmir. Then he pushed me and asked us to leave. As we stood up, he grabbed our sack of shawls and other items, and flung it out on the road,” he told The Wire over phone.They got into an argument with the shopkeeper, saying they had not committed any wrong to deserve the “humiliation”.“He took out a baton and started beating my brother outside the shop. When I tried to rescue him, another man appeared on the scene with an iron rod. He was speaking as if being a Muslim and a Kashmiri was a crime. He pushed me towards one side and smacked my head after which I passed out,” Rashid said.Mohd Shafiq, also a Kupwara resident, who has been attending to the brothers in Uttarakhand’s Vikas Nagar, confirmed that they were beaten up by the shopkeeper and his associate. He praised some local Hindu men and women for intervening in the matter and saving the two men.While Rashid suffered grievous injuries including a fracture in the arm, his elder brother escaped with minor wounds on his leg. “There are eight to ten sutures on his (Tabish’s) head,” Shafiq said.Rashid said that when he regained consciousness, he was at a hospital surrounded by other Kashmiri shawl sellers and some locals. He later learnt from his brother that a Hindu woman, who witnessed the attack, has testified that the two brothers were not at fault.The father of the brothers reached Uttarakhand on Thursday (January 29). Meanwhile, Vikas Nagar police station has filed a case under sections 117 (2) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 352 (intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of public peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, against two unknown persons.It was not immediately known whether any arrests have been made in the case so far which has triggered outrage across the country with the Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and others demanding strict action against the accused.In a video bite posted by Uttarakhand police on X, senior superintendent of Dehradun Police Ajay Singh said that the main accused in the case, identified as Sanjay Yadav, has been arrested and further investigation in the case is underway.However, at least two other men, who also make a living in Uttarakhand by selling Kashmiri shawls, said that the victims have been under pressure from the local community to withdraw the complaint on the basis of which the police case has been filed.The Wire couldn’t immediately verify these claims.“My father is here and he will take a decision,” Rashid said in a low voice, “But if we have been attacked today, it will be someone else’s turn tomorrow. It has been happening with Kashmiris in the country almost on a daily basis. Have Kashmiris come in this world for beatings? If action is not taken against the culprits, it will provoke more attacks.”He lamented that their shawls and other belongings, along with nearly Rs 21,000 in cash were missing after the attack. “There were 47 shawls worth several thousands in the sack,” he said.Hundreds of Kashmiri men, mostly belonging to disadvantaged families, escape the valley during the winters to make a living in the major cities and towns of the country by selling Kashmiri shawls and other handicraft items.Of late, some of them have come under attack from the Hindu rightwing mobs in different parts of the country, prompting outrage from the political parties, activists and concerned citizens.This year, Uttarakhand has particularly emerged as a hotspot of assaults on Kashmiri shawl sellers, and similar attacks have also been reported in Himachal Pradesh. Just a few days ago, a Kashmiri shawl seller was harassed in Dera area of Himachal’s Kangra district after he refused to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, despite threats by a suspected Hindu rightwing mob.On December 22, anothger Kashmiri shawl seller was assaulted in Uttarakhand, following which a suspected Bajrang Dal activist was arrested along with his associates.