Violence in College After Kashmiri Student Called a ‘Terrorist’

The institute’s Kashmiri students staged a protest and the college has rusticated the youth who made the slur.

Emotions have been running high in India after the long-running protests in Kashmir and the recent Uri attack. Picture used for representational purposes. (Photo: AP)

Violence broke out and tension gripped an engineering college in Jhajjar, Haryana, after a Kashmiri student was allegedly called a “terrorist” by one of the other pupils late on Tuesday evening.

The institute’s Kashmiri students later staged a protest, which was called off after college authorities rusticated the student who purportedly made the slur.

The whole affair began when Kaleemullah Babu, a student from Kashmir, was joking around with friends and throwing water at them. Another student, Kasim, a resident of UP, too got accidentally drenched. Following this, he allegedly started hurling abuses at Kaleemullah.

Kashmir has been on the boil since the killing of Burhan Wani. (Photo Courtesy: Zuhaib Maqbool)

The argument escalated and other students got involved, leading to physical violence.

The Kashmiri students in the college, who number around 70 and have been enrolled through the Prime Minister’s Scholarship Programme for Jammu and Kashmir, allege that the security guard too beat them up.

The other party in the tussle, however, argued that the brawl turned ugly when a Kashmiri student slapped a college employee.

“The security guard stepped in to sort out the issue. His father, who is a bus driver in the college, also tried to end the fight. A Kashmiri student slapped the father, after which the guard also became aggressive,” a student who claimed to have witnessed the entire episode told The Indian Express.

People attend funeral procession of militant Burhan Wani at his village Tral in Jammu and Kashmir`s Pulwama district on 9 July. (Photo: IANS)

Police intervention was sought but no formal complaint was lodged as the college authorities claimed it was an "internal matter".

The Kashmiri students later staged a protest and hunger strike. They demanded the rustication of the students who had abused and attacked them, as well as action against the security guard. The students also said that the authorities take up the matter seriously to avoid any such incident in future.

The Kashmiri pupils called off the strike when Aman Aggarwal, the director of the institute, assured them that their demands would be duly considered. Aggarwal later said that Kasim has been rusticated. The college authorities also said that a peaceful settlement has been reached between the parties involved.

(With inputs from The Indian Express)