Amid outrage over “harassment” of Kashmiri students at the Aligarh Muslim University, the Governor’s administration in Jammu and Kashmir Sunday said that it has taken up the matter with the Uttar Pradesh government and assured that “all concerns will be addressed.”
“Governor has taken up the (AMU) matter with the UP government. All concerns will be addressed,” advisor to Governor on security affairs, K Vijay Kumar, told Greater Kashmir, two days after the AMU initiated an internal inquiry against some students for allegedly planning prayers in absentia for PhD scholar-turned-militant MananWani who was killed in a gunfight in northern Kashmir on Thursday.
“I am also in touch with director general of police of Uttar Pradesh,” Kumar said, adding that J&K chief secretary “is also in touch with the UP government.”
An official handout released this evening here said the Governor assured youth that his administration has taken up the “concern for well-being of Kashmiri students studying in Aligarh Muslim University with their administrative counterparts in Uttar Pradesh so that students can carry on with their studies in a safe and secure environment.”
Three AMU students were suspended for allegedly planning the prayer meet.
Manan, a PhD scholar from the AMU had gone missing in January this year and his gun-wielding photograph later surfaced on social media, lending credence to speculations that he had joined militancy in Kashmir.
According to the Aligarh police, around 15 students, most of them Kashmiris, had allegedly gathered at the AMU’s Kennedy Hall for “offering absentia prayers for Manan”—a charge denied by the students.
In a case filed by the Aligarh police, two Kashmiri students studying in AMU—and several unidentified ones—were charged with sedition, allegedly for trying to conduct namaz-e-janaza (funeral prayers) on the campus.
“FIR has been filed on a complaint of police sub-inspector Israr Ahmed who collected information about the incident through his source. The two Kashmiri students named in the FIR are WaseemAyub Malik and Abdul Hafeez Meer. Other unnamed students are also from Kashmir.
“As per FIR, Kashmiri students of AMU Thursday raised ‘azadi, azadi’ slogans on the campus. They also raised slogans against the country while showing support to a militant,” the Aligarh police said.
However, the students denied these allegations and condemned the police action against them.
“We the students at AMU unanimously refute these allegations of violation of law and order and thereby demand an end to defamation of highly-educated Kashmiri scholars. We demand an immediate revocation of suspension orders/show-cause notices and an urgent withdrawal of sedition charges and other legal sections against AMU scholars,” the students said.
They said if their demands were not met, they would surrender their degrees en masse.
“In case the suspension/show-cause notices are not revoked immediately and sedition charges and other charges are not withdrawn, we, the students from Jammu and Kashmir at AMU, will be forced to leave the campus en masse on Sir Syed Day (17 October 2018). We, 1200 students, will surrender our degrees and leave for our homes for reasons of safety and security. All the responsibility in that case will fall on the University, and local administration,” the students said, adding that “we are feeling threatened and challenged and our career is under stake, under such fearful circumstances.”
On Saturday, the Kashmiri students at the AMU also wrote to the university’s proctor that they are being “vilified” and “legal sanctions are being placed on bona fide students” after MananWani, a HizbulMujahideen militant and former research scholar at AMU, was killed in a gunfight in northern Kupwara district in Kashmir on October 11.
In their letter, the students said they had “gathered peacefully on the lawns of the university to discuss the situation in Kashmir after the gunfight as there were multiple reports of tensions that had raised concerns.”
“No prayers or any relevant activity was observed, and the directions of the AMU proctor were duly followed. Meanwhile, some non-Kashmiri people armed with lathis attacked the sitting students and caused a massive disturbance, and noisy scenes. However, the Kashmiri students dispersed immediately and no protest or law and order violation took place,” the letter read.
“Later, a vilification campaign against the students from Jammu and Kashmir was started by media that Kashmiri students violated the law, and disturbed the peace in the campus, though nothing of that sort had happened which was later confirmed by PRO AMU to the media,” the letter further read.
Meanwhile, the Raj Bhavan, in an official statement this evening said: “To ensure welfare of students from Jammu and Kashmir studying in other parts of the country, the Governor said that liaison officers will be designated for areas having higher number of students from the state who will act as a point of contact in these states for the students to get their concerns presented and addressed.”