A Kashmiri student was allegedly forced to wear women’s clothes in Rajasthan’s Alwar district and ordered to walk through a market, and when he took shelter in an ATM kiosk, he was dragged out by a mob, tied to an electric pole and thrashed.

The brother of the student, identified as Mir Faiz, alleged that police kept Faiz in a lock-up for several hours and subjected him to several rounds of questioning. The entire episode has prompted Faiz’s elder brother Faisal to ask: “Aren’t we already paying a huge price for being Kashmiris?”

The police said they were probing whether Faiz, a final-year BTech student of Aeronautical Engineering College in Alwar, had worn the kameez “on his own” or was forced to do so. They said they were investigating claims that Faiz was beaten up on the suspicion of being a child kidnapper.

A video has surfaced on social media showing Faiz, wearing a red kameez with floral prints and tied to a pole. As his head sags, people in the crowd are seen asking him his name and recording videos. At one point Faiz says he has done no wrong. A person is seen telling the others not to assault him.

“We have received conflicting versions of the incident (on Wednesday night) and it is still not clear whether he was forced to wear a woman’s dress or he wore it on his own. He is being questioned by intelligence agencies,” a senior Rajasthan police officer told The Telegraph over the phone.

The agencies, he said, also searched Faiz’s rented accommodation and seized his mobile phone and laptop. “So far, nothing suspicious has been found,” he said.

Faisal, who works in Delhi, rushed to Neemrana in Alwar on Thursday morning after being informed about the assault. Faiz’s parents in Sopore could not be contacted because of the communication blackout in Kashmir.

“In his statement, my brother categorically told the police that he was picked up from a market by three youths and taken to a desolate place. He was forced to undress and wear women’s clothes that the youths had brought with them in a backpack,” Faisal told this newspaper.

“After a while they brought him back to the market and asked him to walk around in those clothes and threatened to kill him if he did not. My brother panicked and hid in an ATM kiosk. He was later caught by a mob that tied him to an electrical pole outside the booth and beat him up,” Faisal added.

He alleged that the police and intelligence agencies subjected Faiz to several rounds of questioning.

“They treated my brother like a criminal by grilling him even after he narrated his ordeal. Instead of arresting the miscreants for brutally assaulting him, the police kept my brother in a lock-up for no rhyme or reason. Aren’t we already paying a huge price for being Kashmiris?” Faisal asked.

Around 6pm on Thursday, the police handed Faiz over to his brother.

“I am taking my brother to Delhi for treatment. We are very scared and fear for our lives,” Faisal said.

The police said that during the preliminary probe some local residents had told them that people in the area had got suspicious on seeing the youth in women’s clothes and may have mistaken him for a child kidnapper.

“Rumours are rife in the area about child kidnappers. A detailed probe is on,” an officer said.

Another officer, however, said Faiz had told his interrogators that he was forced to wear the kameez by the three youths and told to walk through the market. The officer said the youths had threatened to kill Faiz.

The police have lodged an FIR against unknown persons under IPC Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

“Raids are on to identify the people who were behind the attack on the student,” a police officer in Alwar said.