The Uttarakhand police on Tuesday arrested 22 students for staging a protest demanding the expulsion of Kashmiri students in Dehradun, PTI reported. Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police Nivedita Kukreti said the students were arrested outside Uttaranchal College of Science and Technology on Sahastradhara Road.

The students were later released on bail.

Several Kashmiri students were harassed and beaten up in the city over the weekend, days after 40 Central Reserve Police Force officers were killed in a suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Since then, many Kashmiri students in Uttarakhand have temporarily left the state. According to a report in The Hindu, nearly 300 Kashmiri students have fled to Jammu and Delhi from colleges in Uttarakhand after large-scale eviction from their campuses.

The managements of two city colleges – Alpine College of Management and Technology and Baba Farid Institute of Technology – have purportedly announced that they will not give admissions to Kashmiri students following the protests. But Alpine chairperson Anil Saini and Baba Farid authorities told PTI that they were forced to make the announcement under pressure.

Meanwhile, the authorities in Dehradun have assured Kashmiri students of their safety in the city. Garhwal Inspector General Ajay Rautela said Kashmiri students are completely safe in the area and that they have increased police patrolling in the Premnagar area, where many Kashmiri students live.

The Jammu and Kashmir government also set up a helpline for students outside the city. “There have been numerous calls from students of different colleges including Baba Farid Institute of Tech, Alpine Institute, Dolphin Institute, SBS Medical College and so on so forth,” a Jammu and Kashmir government spokesperson said on Monday.