Jammu, Nov 12: BJP State President Ashok Khajuria Thursday alleged that the University of Kashmir has become a den of anti-India activities. The latest example he sighted was the permission granted by the Kashmir University Vice-Chancellor Prof Riaz Punjabi to separatist leader Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani to use the University premises for provoking anti-India explosions and asking the students to take oath for Jehad, Azadi and Islam.
Addressing a press conference at party headquarters Khajuria said that this happened for the first time in 50 years that the sanctity of an academic institution has been eroded by people like Geelani.
“Prof Riaz Punjabi needs to be dismissed, arrested forthwith and proceeded against as per the law of the land,” BJP leader said, adding that Punjabi’s dismissal was imperative in view of the fact that ever since his appointment as the vice-chancellor, the University had been conducting itself like the Deoband School, Saharanpur, which only recently adopted a resolution asking the Muslims of the country not to sing Vande Matram as, according to it, it was anti-Islam, Khajuria said.
Besides Prof Punjabi, Khajuria said, legal action should also be taken against the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, who was the pro-chancellor of the University, and had given a free hand to the vice-chancellor “for permitting anti-national activities” in the campus.
“Simply arresting Geelani is not enough. He is in the habit of making such provocative and anti-national speeches. So, the pro-chancellor and the vice-chancellor are guilty for what Geelani uttered in the University premises,” he alleged.
“The BJP is of the considered view that time has come for the Union government to review its Kashmir policy and rein in the likes of Omar Abdullah, who has become a threat to national security and integrity,” he said.
Khajuria reiterated that BJP would not allow the government of India to announce any concession to the Kashmiri separatists and protagonists of greater autonomy and self-rule as any such concession would not only give legitimacy to the cult of militancy and politics of rabid communalism but would also dilute the Indian sovereignty in Jammu and Kashmir, thus helping Pakistan directly to achieve its sinister goals.
At the same time, he demanded that the army be given a free hand so that the likes of Geelani, Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and others of their ilk are “taught a lesson.”

Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 IST