Hamza Khan
KL NEWS NETWORK
JAIPUR
Youths aligned to the right wing ABVP and an independent students’ organisation called Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti on Tuesday vandalised property and created commotion at a private institute in Udaipur to register their protest against a student from Kashmir who had allegedly shared a post on Facebook praising slain Hizbul Mujahideen popular militant Burhan Wani.
Mudasir Rashid, a third-year student of civil engineering, has since been suspended and booked under sedition.
R S Vyas, director (foundation), Techno India NJR Institute of Technology, Udaipur, said nearly 200 youths barged in on Tuesday morning and threw stones on the campus. They also damaged computers, TV sets and broke windowpanes, he said.
Vyas said, “Rashid had shared a Facebook post (by one Imran Rather). A misleading report carried by a local newspaper today against Kashmiri students in our college immediately fanned anger among some youths.”
Puran Singh, Udaipur unit ‘sangathan mantri’ of ABVP, the student wing of the RSS, said, “we had initially tried to speak with the college administration but there was no response. So we had to resort to this to have our voice heard. The college has merely suspended Rashid, pending police investigation. He should not only be expelled from college but also from the country.”
Dilip Joshi, leader of Chatra Sangharsh Samiti and a former student union president of Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, said, “some students did indulge in vandalism but this was bound to happen.”
Jayesh Joshi, also from the ABVP, said, “we protested for four hours, beginning 9 am. When we chanted ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Pakistan Murdabad’, the Kashmiri students opposed us. We then hoisted the Tricolour.”
Vyas said as part of the college’s social responsibility, he goes to Kashmir each year and selects a few “bright orphans”, who are given free education.
Rashid, also selected as part of “this initiative”, is among a dozen Kashmiri students in the institute, Vyas said.
“He is a bright student and averages nearly 70 per cent (marks). For the time being, we have shifted all of them outside the campus for their safety,” he added.
Chhagan Purohit, SHO, Hiranmagri police station, said based on Vyas’s complaint an FIR was lodged against Rashid under IPC Section 124 (sedition) and relevant sections of the I-T Act.
(The news story first appeared in The Indian Express.)
