JALANDHAR: Three Delhi-based Sikh activists facilitated return of 32 Kashmiri girls to their homes and arranged air tickets for their travel. The trio with the Srinagar-based supervisor of the girls and her Delhi-resident Hindu colleague flew back together. The girls were dropped at their homes spread across five districts with help of the Army officials at Srinagar, who provided cars and accommodation.The girls had come to Pune for training in a nursing course and placement under Skill India programme. But after just five days of their arrival, the situation changed with the scrapping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.“The girls had come out of the state for the first time and were quite scared after restrictions were clamped on Kashmir and the derogatory messages against young women posted on social media. Memories of assault on some Kashmiri students post Pulwama attack had also created panic. Looking at the rising apprehensions on the issue, I posted a video message on my Facebook page on August 5 that if there was any Kashmiri man or woman in distress, they could go to nearest gurdwara for stay and food or could contact me,” said Delhi-based Sikh activist Harminder Singh Ahluwalia.“I received a call from their supervisor Rukaya Kirmani on last Tuesday who informed that 32 girls from Kashmir were with her and they were badly frightened. She asked if we could help them as the girls were from modest families and had also lost contact with their parents,” Ahluwalia said.He then posted video messages on his FB wall making an appeal to raise money for their air tickets and in next two days the required funds were raised. “We bought some tickets from Pune, but then prices went up. Ticketing agent told us to get tickets from Mumbai instead. Around half of them were then transported from Pune to Mumbai with the help of local Sikhs ,” he said.The girl were then flown to Delhi on Friday morning and then to Srinagar. The 32 girls were accompanied by Ahluwalia, Harmeet Singh Khanpuri, Baljeet Singh Babbu, Rukaya and her colleague Sambhav Kumar Sharma. “Sambhav was also of great help,” he said, adding that total expenditure on air tickets was Rs 3.20 lakh. “Entire money was donated by Sikhs from different places while one Kashmiri student contributed Rs 200.”At Srinagar, Army officers helped them and provided cars to transport the girls to their homes across Baramullah, Badgam, Shopian, Srinagar and Kupwara districts on Friday and Saturday. “While the girls stayed at the house of a girl at Srinagar we stayed at Army Guest House. Army officials extended full cooperation and provided their vehicles to transport the girls to their homes. We took every girl to her home,” he said.Videos of the reunions reflected the desperation among parents also to see their girls. If mothers could not stop kissing their daughters, their fathers were profusely thanking the three Sikh activists and Rukaya.