Srinagar, Oct 15: Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti Monday demanded withdrawal of cases against three AMU students from the Valley who were booked after they allegedly tried to hold funeral prayers for the slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Manan Bashir Wani.
She also asked the Centre to intervene in the matter.
The three Kashmiri students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) were booked Friday for sedition for allegedly raising “anti-India” slogans and trying to hold funeral prayers for Wani, a day after he was killed in a gun-battle with government forces in north Kashmir’s Handwara area.
“Pushing youth to the wall will be counter-productive. Centre must intervene in withdrawing cases against students & AMU authorities must revoke their suspension,” she posted on Twitter.
The former chief minister said state governments outside Jammu and Kashmir should be “sensitive” to the situation and “prevent further alienation”.
“It will be a travesty to punish them (students) for remembering their former colleague (Wani) who was a victim of relentless violence in Kashmir,” the PDP president said in another tweet.
Twenty-seven-year-old Wani, who was pursing a Ph.D course in Applied Geology at the AMU, had quit the university and joined militant ranks in January this year.
Tarigami asks Centre to ensure Kashmiri students’ safety
Srinagar, Oct 15: Senior CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami Monday alleged that a hate campaign has been unleashed against Kashmiri students in the country and asked the Centre to take steps to ensure their safety outside the state.
He urged the Centre to initiate criminal proceedings against people found guilty of harassing Kashmiri students in different parts of the country and also sought intervention of the Governor Satya Pal Malik to ensure safe and secure environment to Kashmiris outside the state.
“The harassment of Kashmiri students at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and in different colleges and educational institutions in Punjab at the behest of communal forces is unacceptable and must be condemned in strongest words as such incidents have serious implications,” the CPI(M) leader said in a statement here.
“The already prevailing uncertain situation in Kashmir gets compounded by such incidents. AMU incident is not an isolated one against Kashmiris as in the past, similar incidents have happened in various states of the country.
“It is actually a hate campaign which has been unleashed on Kashmiris outside the state and it has patronage of ruling party in the country,” Tarigami alleged.
The MLA Kulgam said thousands of Kashmiri students are studying outside the state and the “atmosphere of hatred against them” has the potential to ruin their career.
“Students need to be provided with peaceful and secure atmosphere both in and outside educational institutions,” he said, adding the J&K Governor must take up the issue of harassment of Kashmiri students with the concerned state governments at the earliest and ensure safe and secure environment for Kashmiri students, businessmen, labourers and others working in various states of the country.
He said action must be taken against those found involved in intimidating innocent students from Kashmir.
Failure to do so will swell anger and further alienate the general masses. The sooner it is done, the better,” he said.
Owaisi urges Centre, AMU VC to take issue seriously
Srinagar, Oct 15: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday urged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor to resolve the issue of Kashmiri students threatening to leave studies midway.
Around 1,200 Kashmiri students studying in AMU have threatened to leave their studies midway if the sedition charges against three of them were not dropped.
“It is very unfortunate that students want to leave midway. AMU Vice Chancellor, teachers, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Ministry of Home Affairs officials should resolve this issue. I hope this will be taken seriously,” Owaisi said, according to ‘Business Standard’.
In a letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor, AMU students union’s former vice-president Sajjad Rathar have asserted, “If this vilification does not stop, more than 1,200 Kashmiri students will leave for their homes in the Kashmir Valley on October 17 as the last option.”
KU students march in solidarity with AMU colleagues
Srinagar, Oct 15: The students of Kashmir University on Monday staged a protest march in solidarity with Kashmiri students in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) facing “harassment” over funeral prayers for scholar-turned-militant Mannan Wani.
Reports said the students from various varsity departments took out a march and assembled outside the Humanities Block where they raised pro-freedom slogans.
The protesting students said they have organised the peaceful march to protest the killing of Manan Wani and to express solidarity with AMU students who are facing harassment in the AMU campus for trying to offer funeral prayer in absentia for Wani.
They protesting students were also carrying banners with pictures of former KU faculty member-turned-militant Dr Rafi Bhat, who was killed during a gun-fight in March earlier this year.
