AMU row: Mehbooba demands withdrawal of cases against 3 Kashmiri students

SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday demanded withdrawal of cases against three AMU students from the Valley who were booked after they allegedly tried to hold a prayer meeting for 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 on Friday for sedition for allegedly raising “anti-India” slogans and trying to hold a prayer meeting for Wani, a day after he was killed in a gun battle with security forces in Kashmir’s Handwara area.

“Pushing the 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 J&K 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 allied geology at the AMU, had quit the university and joined militant ranks in January this year.

In the wake of the suspension of the three Kashmiri students, more than 1,200 students from Jammu and Kashmir studying at the varsity have threatened to leave for their homes on October 17, if the sedition charges against the three were not dropped.

The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) administration assured a five-member delegation of Kashmiri students on Monday that no innocents would be penalised while probing into details of the alleged prayer meet organised on campus. University registrar Abdul Hamid also urged students to focus on their studies and careers.

In a letter to Proctor, AMU, students of Jammu and Kashmir, studying at the university said “no prayers or any relevant activity was observed and the directions of the AMU Proctor were duly followed”.

The students said they strongly condemn the “fabricated allegations and a systematic vilification campaign” against the students and the university.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi also on Monday urged Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor to take serious cognizance of the threat issued by Kashmiri students. “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 here.