A professor from Kashmir was forced to resign by authorities at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, the latest case of reprisals following a car-bomb attack on a paramilitary convoy that left more than 40 troopers dead last week.
Salman Shaheen, a resident of Sopore who taught English at LPU said he was forced to resign on Monday after morphed text of a Facebook post by him was widely circulated over social media.
“After Pulwama attack, local students of the university were uploading pictures with harsh comments to which I commented that instead of using guns we should use language of love,” Shaheen told Greater Kashmir, the comments were however morphed in Photoshop and made viral over social media.
Shaheen said the students added “As you sow, so shall you reap” to his morphed comment.
“But I never mentioned it in my comment. I posted that when blood of Kashmiri people is shed that time we should also promote it and we don’t promote terrorism, let’s not act blind,” he said narrating his whole Facebook comment.
This is the second instance after the suicide attack when a Kashmiri academician was removed by a university outside Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier on Saturday, a Kashmiri dean of a college in Dehradun was suspended after a crowd of Hindutva activists demanded he be sacked.
Shaheen said he contacted the head of the department late night after the “morphed” post went viral over social media.
“Next day I didn’t dare to go to the university but went to pro Chancellor’s office. I showed him my original comment and she accepted that there was no harm in it,” he said.
Shaheen said students, mostly from Haryana manipulated the issue and he was asked either to either remain suspended for three months or resign from the teaching position.
“I was told that students are angry with me and nobody will take responsibility of my security. I had no option but to resign. The university authorities didn’t convince the students but forced me to resign,” Shaheen said, adding a mob surrounded his rented apartment after he resigned.
“I took help from various helplines and somehow managed to spend the night at my flat. On Monday morning I left for Chandigarh and today (Wednesday) I reached Sopore.”
Kashmiri students have also become victims after institutions they studied in outside the state started expelling many alleging them of posting anti-national comments over social media.
On Tuesday seven Kashmiri students were suspended by Roorkee-based Quantum Global University for their alleged ‘anti-national’ posts on social media.
A varsity official said the action was taken on Tuesday after around 450 students gathered in campus demanding expulsion of Kashmiri students.
“The protesting students threatened to leave the institution if the Kashmiri students were not expelled, so we had to suspend the Kashmiri students to pacify the protesting students,” the university official said.
Since the suicide attack more than 15 Kashmiri students have been suspended or faced rustication from universities and colleges outside the state.
Three Kashmiri students studying in a Banglore college were charged with sedition.
The action comes despite the J&K government claiming to have appointed Laisan Officers who are in constant touch with different college authorities so that no Kashmiri student faces any inconvenience.