I spoke to five schoolchildren and a college student on their experience of living through 20 days of Nazi-style witch-hunt at Purola, a town nestling in the hills of Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand. Their trauma began on May 26, the day Ubaid Khan and Rajinder Saini were nabbed allegedly abducting a minor Hindu girl. Declaring it to be a case of love jihad, Hindutva groups organised rallies, marked shops of Muslims with an X sign, and stuck posters asking them to vacate the premises before a mahapanchayat of June 15. The administration foiled the mahapanchayat and, in protest, Purola and neighbouring markets observed a bandh. Two days later, some Muslims opened their shops.

Among the six I spoke to, Tabassum (name changed), a Std X student, articulated her thoughts and feelings with the vividness of those who maintain a diary of daily jottings. Since she echoed, with minor variations, the other five, I have chosen to abridge her story and retell it.