Kashmiri youth evicted, police comes to rescue

In a chain of dramatic developments, a young Kashmiri singer who was being evicted from his rented accommodation managed to stay put after the timely intervention.

The 24-year-old Aadil Gurezi, who is from the Valley, is a sort of Internet sensation and sings Kashmiri, Sufi and Hindi songs in Mumbai.

"The matter has been resolved," Aadil told DH, on Monday.

Veteran peace activist Jatin Desai, who knows Aadil, said: "If we look at the incident... it has ended on a positive note. This has given a lot of confidence to the Kashmiris staying across the country."

Aadil has arrived in Mumbai more than a year ago.

He was staying in shared rented accommodation at Mhada flats in Lokhandwala area of Andheri West.

He was sharing the flat with other roommates.

On 1 August, he left Mumbai for a brief stay at his home in Bandipur and returned only on 3 September.

In between, there was security built up in erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state and subsequently, the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution and J&K state was divided into two union territories - Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

When he returned on 3 September, he was told by brokers Dinesh Rajpoot and Rashid Ali Khan that he cannot stay here because of the problems in the Valley.

"I was taken by surprise, there was no other place for me to go," Aadil said. "I even told them that I would go to media, police....the broker said 'you do whatever you want'," he said.

When his friends wrote about the incident on social media, Mumbai Police chief Sanjay Barve asked the Versova police station.

Senior officers spoke to the brokers and owner Mohammed Ali Budhwani and resolved the issue.