Mehbooba urges Centre to drop sedition charges on AMU students
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday that Centre must intervene in withdrawing the cases filed against Kashmiri students at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
“Pushing youth to the wall will be counterproductive. Centre must intervene in withdrawing cases against students and AMU authorities must revoke their suspension. The respective state governments outside JK should be sensitive to the situation & prevent further alienation,” Mufti tweeted on Monday.
Mufti’s statement comes days after three Kashmiri students of AMU were booked for sedition for allegedly raising “anti-india” slogans and trying to hold a funeral prayer meeting for Hizbul Mujahideen militant Manan Bashir Wani on October 12.
Wani, a former PHD student of the AMU who had left research to join militancy in Kashmir, was killed in an encounter with the security forces in north Kashmir on Thursday.
Mufti said punishing the students for remembering a former classmate who was a victim of relentless violence in Kashmir would be a travesty.
J&K governor Satya Pal Malik, too, on Sunday said his administration had taken up the issue of the well-being of Kashmiri students studying in AMU with the Uttar Pradesh government.
SILENT MARCH IN KASHMIR UNIVERSITY
Meanwhile on Monday, students of the Kashmir University staged a silent march in solidarity with AMU students.
Kashmiri students studying in AMU had on Sunday written a letter to AMU vice-chancellor denying the charges and threatened to leave the university en masse from October 17 if the sedition charges against the three of them are not dropped.